Tag Archives: money

Update: Banking Consolidation

04 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

I actually did finish out January’s goals – with the exception of the goal of posting them.  I did change one to finish up with my banking move and complete a larger goal – snagging one of those nearly impossible to get historically low mortgage rates.  Which I did.  I also can see the light in the the banking consolidation tunnel that I started down ages ago.

The scenario was this – years ago I had all of my accounts at Wachovia and my mortgage was at one of those little banks that no longer exists.  In fact, I had accounts there that were the evolution of my passbook account from when I was a small child.  Well, Wachovia bought my little mortgage bank and then First Union bought them.  And then, due to divorce, I needed to refinance.  And they wouldn’t even talk to me.  No interest at all.  So a friend points me to a mortgage banker at SunTrust who was terrific and got my mortgage refinanced – and then, several years later, refinanced again at a better rate.

All good.  And then SunTrust waves a “great” checking and savings account deal as well as an equity line “just in case”.  Sounds good, so I start moving accounts (see, I liked the consolidation idea even a few years ago).  Three months into my “no fee, best of breed” checking, I look on my statement and see $25/mo fees.  I call and get told that my mortgage has dropped under their “free” threshold.  I’m paying thousands a year in interest and they want to charge me $25/mo for not owing them enough (and believe me, I owed plenty in my opinion).  I switch to their budget no-frills checking, shred the debit cards and let the two accounts there gather dust.

Flash forward to the economy starting to tank and interest rates dropping at the same time as the credit card companies decide that they are going to jack up everyone’s rates (good customer or not) since they are sure the new “don’t screw the consumer” laws are going to cut into their multi-million dollar executive bonuses.  I sensibly use my equity line to consolidate now high interest card balances.  (Don’t worry, there’s a point to all this.)

Slide farther into the economic crash and interest rates are at a historic low, I have accounts at 2 banks, Wells Fargo has bought Wachovia and I start getting letters about impending fees for breathing inside their brick and mortar.  So, back in December, I pick my little local bank (their products were a bit better than the credit union and their ATM use was free across any bank’s ATM) and I open accounts there with a bit of windfall cash.  Now I have 6 accounts across 3 banks.  Time to consolidate, yes?  Should be easy, yes?  Hah!  I take my excellent FICO, steady job, paid off credit cards, home equity and cash in the bank and start the refinance process, figuring that’s step one.

Welcome to the world of low interest rates, decreasing home values and insanely difficult to get loans.  First I discover that the last three homes in my neighborhood were sold at bargain prices by owners desperate to get out from under their mortgages.  Yay.  My appraisal comes in 4K too low to avoid PMI since I am also paying off the equity line as part of the move – I call around and discover that is about the norm in my area at the moment.  OK, no problem, fast way to fix this is subordinate the second and drop it out of the loan – 48 pages of paperwork and a $200 check and it’s just a matter of waiting a couple of weeks for SunTrust to agree.  Mid-January (3 weeks after I submitted my request) I call and am told they are “working on December 5th requests” – and were rather snotty with me about it.  Yoiks!

Back to the little bank where we sharpen our pencils and move the equity line instead of paying it off.  In the meantime, I close the Wachovia and SunTrust savings accounts – BOTH have repeatedly called since then to “get me back” (they need to get in the frozen hell line with the cable company).  So January ended with 4 accounts at 3 banks and a closing date for my refinance – February should end with 2 accounts and a mortgage at one bank.  Finally.  Oh and interest checking, free ATM and checks and no fees.  What a concept and what a long annoying trip it’s been.

A New Year Right Around the Corner

18 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by in Books, Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Minimalist, Paperless

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

So, year after year I’ve noticed consistent themes and progress (which is good) but not closure really.  I’ve decluttered and my life is much lighter, but not quite “there”.  I’ve trimmed and cut and budgeted, but still not quite “there”.  I’ve even knocked a couple of items off the old bucket list.  That said, I still don’t feel that I’m entirely focused on “the important things” because I’m surrounded by (and in some cases drowning in) “the other stuff”.  So I think that, this year, I’m going to focus each month on one problem that’s eating up more time than it should, eliminate it and put in a way to keep it at bay – completely closed.

Finances have been a consistent time consumer for years as has the paper that surrounds them.  I’ve made some inroads (refinancing, reducing, consolidating) but they still chew up more headspace than they deserve.  So they are on the list.

Clutter in the form of paper also drags on year after year, though the handy shredder has helped a lot.  I still find myself moving paper from place to place as I “can’t quite decide what to do with it”.  This year, I decide.

Home repair and improvement and all the “stuff” that goes along with it (and the yard is included in this) is possibly the biggest albatross around the neck.  And it ties to both the finances and the paper.  Time to resolve.

Health and well being is last but hardly least.  Less stuff, more time, better habits, better food, greener, better quality and less expensive.  What do I need that I don’t have, what do I have that I don’t need, what does the family really use that could stand an upgrade or streamlining?  Simple questions and this year we find the answers.

Four categories, twelve months, 52 weeks.  At a rate of 4 hours per week, 16 hours per month (divided up ever how it makes sense).  While I’m sure there will be gaps and random posts and such, the goal this year is to pick one problem in each category at the beginning of each month, document the issue and resolve one each week.  And by resolve, either completely eliminate the issue or integrate a habit so it doesn’t become a problem again.

So, January will be:

  • Finances – Set autopays, text/e-mail notifications, review 2010 and pick a location to start putting the “important information” as I come across it.  (Especially that which is needed for taxes.)
  • Paperless – eliminate one entire bookcase by sales, donations, trades or recycling.  Remove the bookcase from the house.
  • House – clean out the “Christmas clutter”, organize and pack up only what will be a pleasure to unpack next year.
  • Health & Sanity – time for the 2012 reading challenge and registering for my next 5K.

Wish me luck. 🙂

Banking Change (Step-By-Step)

18 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Paperless

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

The first thing in changing banks is to check out the options.  Things to watch out for are, of course, fees.  Some banks (mostly local) and credit unions don’t have them, some have requirements to avoid them.  If you have enough cash to waste laying around in a barely any interest account, I’ve discovered that you can get “free” checking & debit transactions by simply giving up any opportunity to make your money work for you – though truthfully, I do tend to keep a reasonable amount for emergencies in a savings account, so as long as the required is savings and not huge, this is an option.  An easier method is by setting up a direct deposit to checking – most were happy to waive fees if they knew your cash was coming to them week after week, month after month.  Finally, you can go in debt – if you can place your mortage at the institution and it is high enough to meet their “must owe us” number, they figure they are getting plenty off you in the interest.  Downside of this, as I discovered, if you are responsible and pay down your mortgage, they start to charge fees the second you cross the threshold.

Picked a bank or credit union?  Great!  Open an account (or two – go ahead and do that savings account now as well).  Get your debit cards, checks, deposit slips and routing numbers ready.  It’s a fresh start so make a pretty file folder (yeah, paper) to keep it all in.

Next up – what is linked to your current accounts?  You’d be surprised.  Go back at least a year and look for linkages.  Utility bills and such that are monthly are easy – the sneaky ones are those once or twice a year things like insurance.  Or things that pay into your accounts – PayPal and such.  Start making a list and adding your new account to the setup – it takes a week in some cases for that account to be “approved” for paying and you don’t want to be late on anything.  This is a good time to set up autopays if you can – I like to do the autopays from credit card and then pay the cards off each month – that way I get the rewards points (which covered a LOT of Christmas this year, BTW).  Keep a close eye on balances as you switch over – your old bank would dearly love to hit you with a charge or fee of some sort.

Direct deposits – change them about a week after your big bills are paid.  This will give you a couple of weeks to switch payment accounts and buffer up the new accounts so next month you are using them for everything.  Beware that with paychecks this may mean a few caveman weeks of paper checks – this too shall pass.

Safe deposit boxes – close the old, open a new (if you really need one).  Why would you need one?  Wills, those CDs & DVDs of family pictures you scanned, insurance policies and other similar stuff.  Don’t have that stuff?  Put it on your list to do first thing.

Checks & deposit books from the old bank – tear off a few and tuck them in the “closed account” banking folder.  Shred the rest.  Get copies of or scan all your statements.

Debit cards – activate the new bank cards, shred the old bank cards.  Don’t keep these a second after you close the account – far too easy to screw up and grab the wrong card.

Bank credit cards – don’t close these.  No, really.  Closing these out can have a negative effect on your FICO.  Be sure you know the impact on your credit score before you nuke these.  Also, be careful to charge something to them regularly (I like small monthly charges like a gaming account or somesuch) and pay that off unless your card has a fee for that (yeah, really – I’m not kidding).  At some point in the future we are going to shop better cards, but for now, leave these alone.  (Don’t forget to link payment to your new bank, though.)

Think you have it all?  Then, at the end of the month (preferably in line with your statement period), close those old accounts and move the cash.  Double check that all you checks and debits have cleared – you should have put that checkbook and card away a couple of weeks ago, but be sure to ask your spouse/pet/significant other as well.

Congratulations!  You have completed your move and have a fresh, new, untainted set of accounts at a carefully selected financial institution!

Back to Living Frugally… Banking

14 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Paperless

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

First – a tale of two “banks”.  I’ve had my accounts at Bank #1 since my grandfather took me to get my first passbook account in LaGrange, NC.  If you don’t know what a passbook account is, you actually had a book and when you made a withdrawal or a deposit, it was actually written in and stamped by the teller.  Said teller also made you feel important, no matter how small the transaction.  I’ve kept those accounts through various jobs and marriages and businesses.  When I divorced years ago and needed to refinance my house to remove my ex-husband from the mortgage, Wachovia (who had held the mortgage for more than 10 years) literally did not want to talk to me about it.  I asked a few friends in various areas of the real estate and finance industry and got a recommendation to a mortgage banker at Bank #2.  She was terrific, got everything taken care of at that point and even (true to her word) called back when my “not so great deal in the long run but good for the short haul” mortgage was going to go south and worked through a refinance to a fixed 30 year.  Note that for all of this I had a steady income and solid FICO.

Fast forward – I now have checking/savings at Bank #1, mortgage and equity line at Bank #2.  Bank #1 seems to have trouble remembering our names when we go in the bank and the annoying little changes start.  Bank #2 offers us their “best checking and savings line” if we move since our mortgage is there.  After several months, I go look at the offer and yes, it comes up far higher than Bank #1 by comparison.  Not wanting to change all the ePay and autopays immediately, I take a block of cash and open the Bank #2 accounts with the intent to move over gradually.  Good thing I didn’t because 2 months in I start getting $25 monthly fees for having the account.  I go down and inquire and am told that my “total accounts” there don’t meet their “minimum” (by $2000 – remember, I have a mortgage there, so we are talking less than 1%).  They switch me to their budget checking which doesn’t have a monthly fee, but will suck out cash anytime I do anything.  We run our debit cards through the shredder and pack away the checks to make sure we don’t use them ever.

Where are things today?  Bank #1 has officially become Bank #3.  Bank #3 has added fees, changed my account types “to better serve me” and signed me up for some monthly fee protection garbage that apparently activated when my husband requested a replacement debit card.  Bank #2 is now charging a monthly fee to use their debit card.  I’m sure that Bank #3 is not far behind.  And I’m shopping for a financial home – again.  Interest rates are lower than when I last refinanced and I am well past the break even point on the last one, so savings will be worthwhile.  My FICO is good to excellent depending on which of the big three you ask (and well over the “get the good rates” number).  I have a solid employment history, low debt and substantial equity even with the housing crash.  Basically, I’m a danged good customer and I’m hoping someone out there is still interested in that.

Based on research over the last month the first two candidates are a small local bank and my employer credit unions.  My requirements are:  no-fee debit card transactions, electronic banking, no monthly fee checking, competitive mortgages, mobile banking, no “super sekrit special programs that enroll you without warning” and helpful customer service.  I do want all my main accounts, mortgage and regular transactions to be with the same institution for simplicity, though I’m not adverse to putting one of the savings accounts at another, just in case.  Results (and former bank names) coming in subsequent posts, so stay tuned. 🙂

To E-Book or Not to E-Book?

14 Saturday May 2011

Posted by in Books, Cosmic Questions, Geeky, Paperless

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

One of those interesting paperless questions that tends to torture me.  Do I read e-books?  Yes, I have the Kindle app as well as other assorted e-book readers on both my iPad and my Windows 7 phone and I’ve read books, technical documents and short stories on them.  Obviously, this is the truly paperless solution and more than likely the one we will all be using exclusively in the future.  With more and more authors choosing to e-publish only, schools incorporating more digital texts, libraries providing e-book downloads and readers getting cheaper and cheaper, it’s pretty much a done deal.

It’s going to be a sad day for me.  I love to hold a book.  Books never have low batteries or glare issues.  You can tell from my much older articles I think PaperBackSwap is one of the best sites around and I’m still a religious user.  That said, it’s a lot heavier to carry a selection of books than an eReader and you don’t have to worry about the bookmark falling out.  I love being able to switch from device to device and synch up to my last stopping point.  Electronic publishing has made short stories and novellas more accessible as individual products.  It’s certainly easier for new authors to publish electronically and for established authors to promote shorter works.

In truth, I’m just looking for the perfect tablet to add to my paperless arsenal.  While I doubt I’ll be jumping to new release books anytime soon, you never can tell – I would dearly love to see a format for eBooks similar to the all-you-can-eat Zune Pass model for music.   That, my friends, would probably be the start of a serious reduction in physical books around our place.