Tag Archives: Banking

Mar
23
2023

Why You Should Do Your Banking Online

I have been banking online since it all began. At first it was an easy way to check your balance. Because it was so easy, I started checking my balance every day. Then I figured out I could transfer money from my checking to my savings accounts with out having to go to the bank.

I was using Microsoft money to balance my checking account and for budgeting and I found I could create a file.QIF file to import into Microsoft Money. This was great because it saved me time from having to key in all the detail from my statements.

When the banks started bill pay at first I was leery about it. But after I realized how safe it was and how convenient it was I started setting it all up. I could sit at my desk and type in the amount to pay on each bill. The bank would then write a check for me, put it in an envelope, stamp it and mail it.

The money comes out of your account immediately instead of weeks as you wait for the check to clear. Because the bank keeps records in addition to your records, you have a great place to start to research when there is a problem. You still need to balance your check book every month though. Even banks make mistakes.

Now what I have done is set up some of my payments with the company itself. Like my Verizon bill is auto pay, because that could vary every month. My house payment comes out of my checking account because that is a consistent amount every month. I have set up as many bills on auto pay as I can so that I don’t worry about if I paid them or not. Now when I am on vacations, my water bill gets paid. How cool is that! This type of banking has saved me money and more importantly time. I still check my balance everyday.

Mar
08
2023

Bankrupt Economy A Result of Morally Bankrupt Politics And Financially Bankruptcy Banks

With the passage of the poorly-named “Foreclosure Prevention Act,” the somewhat-elected representatives of a small percentage of the people of the country have passed legislation that will only hurt more homeowners. Although ostensibly designed to provide more resources to assist homeowners in foreclosure, the bill actually rewards those parties (banks and homebuilders) who have profited most from the real estate bubble.

In fact, the bill actually provides tax credits to soften the blow of proceeding with a foreclosure. The lenders are now encouraged to keep foreclosing on houses, while Congress allows them tax cuts to make this more attractive. All the while, the banks claim they need more bailouts and the Fed needs more power to offer bailouts.

This line of thinking, rewarding those with money with the houses of the poor and middle class, reflects the popular thinking among the rich, which they have tricked the general public into believing that these policies are for the common good. To see through the deception, though, look no further than how Congress has done absolutely nothing to help any single homeowner in foreclosure.

But the banks get hundreds of billions of dollars from the Fed in below-market interest rate loans, and they can exchange defaulting mortgage debt for not-yet-defaulted US Treasury Securities. This is then defended as necessary to prevent the banking system, which has preyed upon the public for decades, from collapsing.

And banks and homebuilders now get tax credits to lessen the cost of foreclosing on homeowners. The new owners of America are the very same corporations that created the unsustainable suburbs and locked people into homes with large mortgages they can no longer afford.

The general public is getting stuck with these defaulting mortgage loans so banks can ignore the toxic debt and continue operating without having to work with homeowners to stop foreclosure. They have taken the policy of just ignoring the problem and hiding their bad loans at the Fed until the issue is no longer interesting to the media.

And of course, the media is proclaiming that the recession, which was not coming, and was not strong enough to be considered a recession, is now over. The Fed and the government stepped in to correct the problem, and rising food and energy costs and increasing foreclosure rates are not symptoms of problems in the economy.

Did people really elect their government officials to make it easier for banks to steal their homes? Probably not, but that is exactly what is happening now in the gifts given to the banking system.

Americans are being forced to pay through inflation for bailouts to the very same mortgage companies that are pushing them into foreclosure. And all Congress can come up with is voluntary plans for banks to maybe participate in to maybe offer solutions to homeowners behind on their housing payments. We have to keep the banking system afloat, but banks do not have to help anyone suffering from their policies of inflation and credit creation.

With the political power and the power of money in the hands of the banks, politicians, and even the homebuilders right now, why wouldn’t the news and mainstream media encourage even more predators to get into the foreclosure business? It sure seems to be much more lucrative than helping anyone actually save a home from foreclosure, what with foreclosure victims and others paying hundreds of billions of dollars to help out the banks.

“Poor unfortunate credit victims” are the best consumers for the banks to prey on, and they have extended their tentacles into every aspect of the lending system. Subprime mortgages, adjustable rate mortgages, high credit card interest rates, hidden credit card fees, and every other junk charge are designed to push people out of the banking system so that they can no longer qualify for personal savings or checking accounts.

But even then, the banks are not done with them. Large multinational banks even have financial interests in the payday loan outlets! Why lend at 6%, 12%, or 29% when you can just push people into such desperation that they take on 400% interest rates just to pay for groceries and get to work and pay their mortgage?

Thus, it should be clear by now to any person paying attention that the whole system is morally bankrupt. If the system were not politically bankrupt, as well, we might see some banks fall into financial bankruptcy without generous bailouts paid for by you and I.