Here are some tips for keeping your family fed without breaking the bank:

Preplan Your Menu

If you can get into the habit of sitting down on a weekly or monthly basis to preplan your meals, you’ll likely find you can save a lot of cash starting right away. Your menu planning will not reduce the cost of groceries but will organize your grocery list so you can and do spend less. There is an unlimited amount of free recipes online and on television so you can keep meals from getting boring.

Plan for Sales

When you complete your family menu, use it to make a list of all the ingredients needed to go into each dish for the week. This list will become your shopping list at the store. Rather than run to the usual grocery store, take the time to review sales fliers to find out where the deals are. By utilizing the planned menu as a shopping list, you will be more effective at clipping and using coupons to save even more.

Buy Fresh Weekly

In order to avoid wasted food, shop for fresh ingredients once a week. Nonperishable foods and items like paper products can be purchased on a monthly basis or when sales are worthwhile. Remember that may fresh products can be safely frozen such as green peppers and onions and are handy to grab when you want to spice up your meal. Invest in reusable bags and containers to keep food safe from freezer burn.

Use Versatile Ingredients

As you continue planning meals, you’ll begin to build a nice supply of staples which you will only need to replenish once in a while. You should focus on using recipes with versatile ingredients like chicken breasts, ground beef or turkey, and other food items compatible with many different kinds of recipes.

Many families fail at meal time planning because they feel there is not enough time in their busy schedule. But if you can take an hour at night or a few hours on the weekend to prepare several meals in advance, families are more likely to spend time at the family table than in pricey restaurants or the unhealthy fast food drive-through.

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For whatever reason you end up owing federal or state taxes, you have to file your income tax forms on time or your tax bill will only increase. Many Americans have to pay Uncle Sam but do not have the amount of cash it takes to eliminate the debt upfront. Some make the mistake of not filing taxes at all out of collection fears.

The reality is no matter what your financial status is you must file on time. The IRS has options so you can pay off your owned tax balance over time if you are not able to pay the lump sum when you file. The most popular method taxpayers will opt for is an installment agreement. This is an agreement between you as the taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service where you agree to pay a specific amount of money each month towards your tax debt until it is paid off.

When you file your annual tax return, you will need to include this installment agreement with your documents. You should first review your budget and income to determine how much you can reasonable afford to pay in owed taxes. You should include a check for the portion of the debt owed along with the agreement when you file your taxes. You will need to indicate on the how much you can reasonably afford to allocate towards your tax bill each month until the balance is paid in full.

The amount you suggest to the IRS will be reviewed and must be deemed reasonable by the agency in order for them to accept. By putting as much as you can afford towards your tax bill each month, you can reduce the amount you owe since it will help eliminate penalties and interest charges.

Your next step will be to move forward ensuring you will not let history repeat itself. Make sure enough taxes are being withheld from your paycheck and that you are also contributing to a savings account with each paycheck. This emergency fund can be helpful if you ever again find yourself facing a tax bill.  You should also make a point of saving all receipts for tax deductible spending to lower your tax liability moving forward.

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If you have gotten married, divorced, added dependents, or can no longer claim previous dependents, you should speak with a human resource or payroll representative at your job to ensure withholdings are correct.

Consequences of Forgotten Withholdings Changes

You may only realize your withholdings are incorrect at tax time when it is too late. On one hand, you may end up with a rather large refund but on the other hand you may end up owing money to the IRS

While you may think getting a refund is a good thing, you need to reconsider the actually situation. When the IRS owes you money, you have essentially given the federal government an interest-free loan. That money could be put to better use by you. You should adjust your withholdings so you break even at tax time and keep the extra money in your paycheck.

More Life Changes

In addition to withholdings information during a change in life’s circumstances, there are likely many other things you need to change and update. It can be a wise move to create and keep a list of financial services, tax information, and other personal services on a spreadsheet which is stored in a safe location.

If you ever need to make an address change, a name change, a married status change, or the like, you will have one master list to refer to so you can ensure all of your relevant information is updated and accurate at one time. Often consumers will forget to update their personal information and basic contact information with creditors, relevant government agencies, former employers, and financial service providers.

Without current and updated information on file, you may not be able to access important tax documents, account alerts and changes, investment details, and other vital information you need for your personal and financial life.

Your master list should include the name of the company, the contact information, and relevant account numbers so you have all you need in one convenient place. Make sure you add and remove new service provider details on the master list as you open or close accounts. This list will make your life-changing duties a much easier and more organized process.

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Here are some situations which might cause the IRS to raise an eyebrow – and look deeper into your financial situation:

Certain Deductions

Your goal as a taxpayer is to find as many tax deductions you are qualified to receive – but certain types of deductions in large amounts might cause the IRS to take a closer look.  Employee business expenses, charitable contributions and vehicle expense deductions are among the most common causes of IRS audits due to high deduction amounts.

If you have no reported income but are submitting business and rental schedules, you will also have a higher risk of getting audited.

Questionable Lifestyle in Comparison to Financial Situation

If you appear to have a lifestyle that is not supported by the information in your tax return, the IRS might get curious and dig deeper into your bank accounts to see if there is any unreported income.

Adoption and Earned Income Credit

If you file for either the Earned Income Credit or the Adoption Tax Credits, you are more at risk for an IRS audit.  These are tax credits that individuals frequently abuse to increase their tax refund or reduce their tax liability, so when the IRS sees someone putting in for the Earned Income Credit or Adoption Credit, they are more likely to make sure the taxpayer is eligible for the credit.

Typo Errors

If you put the decimal point in the wrong place or add a few extra zeros to a deduction, you can really skew the numbers in your tax filing.  For example, if you have a $6,000 income tax withholding but accidentally enter $60,000 – you’re going to cause all kinds of problems with the rest of your tax return – and the IRS will figure it out.

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Here are five reasons you should be paying more attention to your receipts:

Overpayment

To be a savvy consumer you need to ensure you are never overcharged for anything. You should check through your receipt before leaving the store so you can head back to customer service and report the errors to get a refund. Some stores promote other perks like double refunds if pricing is wrong.

Expense Tracking

You may think you can estimate how much you spend in different financial categories but you should utilize receipts to confirm exactly what you spend from month to month for budgeting purposes.

Deductible Proof

In addition to expense tracking, you will also need to hang on to those receipts for income tax time as proof of your spending. This is also true for independent business owners.

Spending Habits

By using your receipts to track expenses, you can use more accurate data to figure out your spending habits. Until you face the reality of how much you spend and how you spend it. This is the only way you will be able to establish an accurate budget and plan for savings to stabilize your financial future.

Receipt Cautions

Saving receipts for your financial planning is important but disposing of those receipts is also something you need to consider. Receipts often give away too much vital information that can compromise your personal and financial information. While many receipts are somewhat discreet, anyone picking up one of your tossed receipts may be able to use the information to rip you off.

Any receipts you are not saving for expense tracking or bank/credit card reconciliations should be properly destroyed using a document shredder. It can be easy to toss the paper into the nearest trash can wherever you are but that will give the public access to your information.

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Investing with a Moderate-Risk Portfolio

If you have modest amounts of money to invest, and can’t spend hours studying the prospectuses of various options for investing – you can reach financial goals faster by setting up a one asset-allocation fund, for example, a three-year growth fund offering a blend of domestic bonds and foreign stocks with an annualized return of 2.3%.

Another option might be to set up a target-date fund based on the year you plan to retire – these funds will automatically make changes to the types of investments you buy as you get closer to your retirement age and need to reduce your risk level.

The Quick Way to Budget

Careful budgeting can eat a lot of your time, and if time equals money – it may not be the best use of that time!  Try the quicker way of budgeting using automatic deposits and multiple bank accounts.  For example, set up three bank accounts: an interest-earning savings account (with the highest interest rate you can find); and two checking accounts.

Figure out how much money you need to pay your monthly living expenses, and how much of your income that requires each pay period.  If you need $2800 a month to pay all of your living expenses and you get paid 4 times each month, have $700 automatically deposited into one of your checking accounts each pay period.  This account is your bill account, and you’ll pay all of your expenses from this account.  Then, figure out how much money you want to save each month; if saving $500 a month, you would want to deposit $125 per pay period into your savings account.  The remainder of your paycheck would go into the second checking account – and this is how much you have for entertainment and miscellaneous spending.  Provided you use the accounts the way you set them up and don’t have drastically fluctuating income, this strategy eliminates having to keep careful track of each penny coming in and out of your accounts.

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In this common scenario, there are typically two choices:

• You can cut some expenses out of your budget completely; or
• You can add additional sources of income to your financial situation.

If you can no longer cut anything else from your living expenses, it is time to add more money to the mix. Here are 4 ways you may be able to boost your income:

Ask for Overtime

If you work at a job that offers the opportunity for extra hours, sign on. You can earn extra cash without having to worry about starting a part time job somewhere new. If no overtime is available, perform a self-analysis about your work performance and approach your boss about a raise.

Go Part-Time

If you are not in a position to get a raise, consider applying for a part time job. Use the second paycheck strictly to reduce your debts. Once your debts have been eliminated, you can consider eliminating your part time gig.

Skills for Dollar Bills

Many people have a knack, a natural gift, for doing things. Home repair, sewing, crafts, childcare, individual lessons, or any number of hobbies and activities other people cannot do. You can earn supplemental income by promoting your skills among friends, your church, and your community and so on. A big hurdle in this option is people worrying about charging people they know for services rendered. However, move forward without guilt as many people likely feel more comfortable hiring you for jobs than they would a stranger. You may find you have a whole new career ahead of you.

De-Junk Your Life

They say one man’s trash is another’s treasure. Take the opportunity to declutter your home and your life by selling unwanted or unused items. There are many resources for you to unload items for cash including hosting a garage sale, working with a consignment shop, or eBay and other online websites.

Educate Yourself

If your current job is approaching dead-end status, consider the local and governmental resources which offer free or low-cost continuing education programs. These resources can open new doors of financial opportunity and freedom for you. There are many affordable online courses you can use to boost your skills, knowledge, and paycheck totals. It is never too late to learn something new.

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Avoid Late Fees with Automatic Payments

If you find yourself too busy to send your payments in on time, but you have the income to support your debts – consider setting up an automatic payment schedule to pay your bills.  You can schedule automatic payments through most banks’ online bill payment feature, but if your bank doesn’t offer the service you can log into each of your accounts individually and manually schedule payments.

Avoiding Late Fees when You Don’t Have Enough Money

Sometimes you don’t send payments in on time simply because you don’t have enough money to pay each of your bills before the due date. If this is the situation you’re in, try to pay your accounts in order of the accounts that will charge you the highest late fee if you’re late, first.  So if you have two accounts that charge $39 a month when you’re late, and a utility bill that charges 1% a month when you’re late – pay the $39 monthly late fee first to minimize the amount you pay each month in late fees.

Avoiding Late Fees By Reducing Total Debt

If you end up with late fees because you have more debt than you can pay comfortably, it’s time to focus on getting out of debt.  Try using the debt snowball to organize your method of debt reduction.  The snowball has you paying the minimum payment each month on everything except for one account which you send as much as you can each month until it is paid off.  Then, when you eliminate one of your debts, you apply the money you were sending to that account to the minimum payment you were sending to one of your other accounts until the next one on the list is paid off.

How to Remove a Late Fee

If you are someone who hardly ever pays your bills beyond the due date, you should have little trouble getting a late fee removed.  When you see a late fee on one of your accounts, call the customer service department and explain what happened and ask if there is any way they could extend the courtesy of removing the fee.  You may be surprised to find they will simply because you asked – but most companies will only offer this courtesy once or twice a year and only for people who don’t pay their bill repeatedly late.

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The credit card companies seem to be responding to both new legislation and a recovering economy by adjusting their treatment of card users. For this reason, consumers, especially those with excellent credit, have much more power than in previous years. It is important to understand your rights as well how you can negotiate with credit card companies to get the best possible terms and conditions.

Negotiate With Confidence

Consumers who have good to excellent credit have some negotiating power with credit card companies. If you have managed your finances well in the past, credit card companies are more willing to consider lower interest rates or possibly waiving fees which would otherwise increase your balance. Understand that your credit history and score will play a big factor in whether or not your credit card company will consider concessions for your benefit. If you do have good credit, you are in a position of power in that credit card companies tend to cater to customers posing the lowest risk.

How to Improve Your Credit Score

For consumers who have less than perfect credit, all hope is not lost. While it is true that your credit card company might not be jumping through hoops to offer you the best interest rates or other conditions, you can make changes to improve your credit. By managing your credit wisely and proving you are capable of making responsible financial decisions, your credit card company may begin to view you as a lower risk as well. There are many ways to improve your credit including making payments on time, reducing your balances and reviewing your credit report for errors.

Understand Credit Card Companies

When you understand how credit card companies work, you are in a better position to manage your credit responsibly. Recognize that you are dealing with a multi-billion dollar business, with banks looking to make as much money as possible. With that being said, if you prove to be a valued customer, credit card companies will be more inclined to work with you to improve the business relationship you have established with them. Consumers now have more protection than ever before; making this an ideal time to learn how to improve your position when dealing with credit card companies.

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Compare Credit Card Fees

Look at all fees associated with any credit card you are considering. Are their annual fees? What is the benefit of paying for an annual fee on one credit card over choosing a card without an annual fee? What are the over-the-limit and late fees? Is there a fee to close the credit card account?

Compare Annual Percentage Rates

When comparing one credit card to another, one of the first places to look is the APR, or interest rate charged. The lower the interest rate, the better, but keep in mind many credit cards offer lower interest rates for the first six to twelve months to entice consumers to choose their card – but it’s important to know what the interest rate will be after the promotional period ends. Also look at the differences in APR charged for purchases, balance transfers, and cash advances.

Available Credit Limits

How much will each credit card company offer you in terms of a credit limit? If one card is offering you $200 compared to a $3,000 credit card – it may make more sense to go with a card with a higher limit. Credit limits generally depend on your personal credit score and amount of income.

Comparing Secure Cards and Unsecured Cards

There are two primary types of credit cards – those that are secured and those that are unsecured. The traditional credit card is unsecured, in that you get a higher credit limit and do not have to give a deposit or collateral in exchange for the spending power. For people with lower credit scores, you may consider a secured card if you can’t get approved for an unsecured credit card. This will allow you to place a deposit on the account in order to obtain credit. Just make sure to choose a secured card that will also report your activity to the credit bureaus so you can begin re-establishing and rebuilding your credit score.

Compare Grace Periods for Payments

Look at how long each card in consideration gives you for paying your credit card balance before interest is charged. Ideally, you want a card with at least 25 days to pay.

Low Balance Transfer Rates

If you intend to move a high interest balance from other credit cards to your new credit card, also look carefully at balance transfer fees and interest rates. Look for a card that will offer the lowest balance transfer fee, and the longest period of time at the lowest interest rate to help you pay off your high interest debt faster.

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How Durbin Amendment Affects Consumers

The Durbin Amendment was put into play effective October 1, 2011. The amendment has limited the amount of money banks can charge merchants that process debit card transactions for purchases.

In the past, banks made a lot of money from these swipe fees but now with the new limitations, banks are losing a lot of their reliable profits. As a result, the customers of the big banking facilities are now incurring more costs for services that in the past have been free.

Consumer Consequences

Consumers are struggling with their financial obligations with the recession and the high rates of unemployment. Adding new and larger bank fees makes it nearly impossible for some to survive financially from one month to the next.

Banks are imposing fees for many things consumers are not accustomed to paying. There is still the deficiency in bank customers that regularly neglect to review bank statements and account disclosures which detail changes being made to banking services, including new or increased fees.

Without opening the mail, consumers are often in the dark about what they are actually paying for just to maintain a checking or savings account. Maintenance fees, transaction fees, and monthly debit card usage fees are growing more common and more expensive.

Avoiding Financial Mistakes in Banking

In order to avoid paying more than necessary, there are a few things consumers can do now to create a more stable financial future. These actions include:

Comparing offers of other banks – see what else is out there that better suits your banking needs at rates you can reasonably afford and transfer your accounts to a facility with better opportunities and more customer-friendly incentives.

Be diligent about recording transactions – even one overdraft on your account can incur a $40 or $50 charge so it pays to be consistent in recording transactions and helps to leave a cushion in your account to protect you from simple math mistakes.

Use cash – instead of forking over various transaction fees for using ATMs outside of your banking network, plan ahead with your budgeting to make free cash withdrawals from the teller that allow you to avoid electronic transactions and their subsequent fees altogether.

Make savings a priority – the only way to ensure you have financial stability is to pay yourself first. Most banks allow for automated deposits from your paycheck or other bank accounts at no additional charge. Make a commitment to put away some percentage of your income to build up an emergency fund that can help you avoid financial disasters such as bank overdrafts or unexpected expenses.

Read the fine print – stop throwing away your bank statements. Be sure to review each statement and piece of correspondence that comes from your bank. If you neglect to read all of the information you are being given by your bank, you are likely to miss out on important details concerning fees and other account changes. Make sure to also read the fine print that often contains the most important details.

Deal with bank concerns – if you are not happy with the changes that are taking place concerning your bank accounts, stop by the bank and speak to a supervisor or branch manager. While there is no guarantee they’ll be of assistance, pleading your case can make a difference if you have been a long-time customer in good standing. Some banks will be willing to waive certain fees or account requirements simply because you spoke up.

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Here are 4 of the most common money mistakes couples make during their marriage:

Lack of Effective Communication

When couples do not talk about money issues on a regular basis, both halves of the couple are likely to be on two very different pages. In order for couples to effectively manage their money, they need to effectively talk about money matters every week. This communication should involve establishing a budget together for the household and setting spending limitations and guidelines. There are no right answers to how thing should be set up. It is up to the couple specifically to share their ideas and input equally.

Hiding Spending Secrets

As part of open and honest money communication, it is essential that couples not keep spending secrets. A big problem with joining incomes is the feeling of not being able to make independent financial decisions. This could be avoided by establishing cash allowances to each party to spend at their own discretion such as for surprise birthday gifts. Secrets about money can cause a lot of ill-will and bitter feelings. Open communication can allow for better, more effective money management when both parties have equal input.

Undiscovered Money Styles

Long before you head down the aisle, you and your spouse should have had some discussion about money personalities. People have different methods for dealing with their income and debts. If those personality styles clash, it can set up some big barriers in the marriage. Before you tie the knot, consider the best way for you and your partner to handle combining bank accounts and handling debts together. Otherwise you can expect issues down the road when neither of you is willing to compromise.

Inconsistent Expectations

Another component of communication where money is concerned is about both parties having appropriate expectations about money. It is important to find equal ground where short and long-term financial goals are concerned. Both parties should also voice their expectations where money matters are concerned such as how financial obligations and duties will be divided up and what methods will be used for saving, investing, and spending.

Money issues can start small but soon become a growing snowball of other problems. When money is already tight, disagreements about financial matters can get out of control. As stated, it is in your best interest to sit down with your intended and discuss crucial money matters during the time when you discuss other goals as a couple. While your financial goals may differ, there is always a way to find equal ground and be able to manage money together in an efficient and effective way.

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Credit card skimming is when someone uses an electronic device to read the information off your credit and debit card to use later in the creation of a new card. Some thieves will use your numbers to shop online. You are at risk for credit and debit card skimming scams whenever you shop with your card instead of cash; or when you withdraw cash from an automated teller machine. If all card transactions put you at risk for credit card skimming scams, what steps can you take to avoid them?

Stop Using Credit and Debit Cards

The most obvious way to avoid credit or debit card skimming scams is by not using your cards and switching to cash transactions – but for many people this is not an option. You can reduce your use of cards by withdrawing money from inside the bank with a bank teller instead of using an ATM. If you’re unable to completely avoid using your credit and debit cards, the following tips will help you reduce your risk for skimming scams.

Review Transactions Carefully

Make sure you open your credit card statements and bank statements as soon as they arrive and review the transactions. If you have been the victim of a card skimming scam, it’s important that you recognize it immediately so you can notify the card company or bank and put a stop to future charges on the card. For many credit card companies, you need to notify them within a certain period of time after a fraudulent purchase has been made to limit your personal liability for fraudulent purchases to $0 or $50. If you fail to notify the company of potential problems as soon as they happen, you could be liable to pay for purchases you didn’t make. Debit cards have different rules for fraudulent purchases, and may differ between banks. Check with your bank to find out what their fraud policies are.

ATM Debit Card Safety

You will increase your safety when you use an ATM inside a bank branch rather than a drive through or outside ATM, since it is harder for a thief to install a skimming device on an ATM located inside the bank.

Card skimming at an ATM generally involves two devices – a unit that reads your card as you swipe or insert it into the ATM, and a tiny camera that literally records your PIN by watching you enter the numbers on the keypad. You can reduce your risks for card skimming at an ATM by checking the unit before you insert or swipe your card to make sure it doesn’t appear to have a skimming device installed; and for covering your hand when you enter your PIN to block view from a potential camera.

Gas Pumps, Restaurants, and Retailers

Every time you use your debit or credit card, you are at a risk for card skimming crimes. When putting gas in your car, you might want to pay inside instead of at the pump to reduce your risks when getting fuel. In restaurants where the waitress will disappear to another part of the restaurant to process your card payment, you might consider using cash, instead. At retailers, if you have any concern about the legitimacy of the credit card reader, you can always ask the cashier to enter your card number manually instead of swiping your card for payment.

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There are millions of Americans that have struggled with financial hardships at one time or another. There are still many households that are enduring even longer instances of money problems. Unfortunately in many of these cases the debt problems were there long before people were willing to admit to it. Early prevention could have saved many from a long debt struggle but few were able to realize they had a problem until it was way out of control.

Here are 5 considerations you need to make about the state of your finances to help you decide if you need to focus on debt help:

Making Barely the Minimum

If you find you have trouble coming up with even the minimum amount due on your various months’ bills, you may need to rethink your money management strategies. Financial experts recommend your total debt each month be no more than 20% of the income you bring home. If your debt totals more than you make, your financial situation is not likely to get any better. It is time to increase your income to get a better handle on your debts. If you can’t make even the minimum payments, you will need to start cutting costs in other areas of your budget to focus on debt payoffs.

Reckless Credit Spending

Too often people consider their credit card limits as an extension of their income. They spend on credit without having the cash back up which will enable them to pay off credit card balances in full each month. Spending on plastic can easily get out of control and if you are using credit cards just to get by, you are heading down a path of debt problems, potentially for many years to come.

Ignore Budgeting Limitations

If you give up on your budget or fail to start one in the first place, it may be due to the fact you can face your money issues. A budget it supposed to be enacted to ensure you stay within your spending limits. If money is too tight, it can be easy to dispose of the budget with excuses that it doesn’t work. The reality is that in order to get a handle on your money affairs you need to construct a budget and stick with it, even if it cuts out all of your spending money for a few months.

Acquiring New Lines of Credit

If you find you have maxed out your lines of credit and start applying for new accounts, you are certainly in over your head. if your credit score has not yet suffered due to your financial problems, you may be able to get additional new accounts. However, too many applications for credit will start to sink your credit score. Your new accounts may come with lower credit limits and higher fees, meaning you’ll pay more than you can afford for the new accounts and start ruining your credit at the same time.

You Tell Fibs

If you find you have been telling white lies about your financial situation to people in your inner circle that express concern, you may need to sit down and confront yourself. Debt is not a problem that will go away if ignored. It will actually grow bigger and more problematic. Do not let pride or embarrassment get in the way of getting help when you need it. Admitting you have debt problems will be the hardest part but once you ask for help you can turn the situation around within a few months’ time if you put forth the effort and get a handle on your finances once and for the long-term.

Do I Have a Debt Problem? 5 Tips for Evaluating Your Situation was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Here are some tips for using a credit card to your financial advantage:

Make Small Purchases

One of the reasons consumer debt on credit cards soared is because people failed to use credit cards wisely. They made big purchases they couldn’t afford because they mistakenly considered their credit limit as an extension of their income. The right way to use a credit card effectively is to make a few small purchases during the month and pay off those purchases before the end of the billing cycle. Never apply for a line of credit simply because you want more spending freedom.

Stash the Cash Equivalent

When you make the small monthly purchases on your credit card, place the cash value of the purchase into an envelope or your bank account. This will ensure you can cover the full balance when the bill comes due. Resist the urge to use the stashed cash for any other purpose or you may find yourself unable to meet your financial obligations.

Create a Spending Budget

One of the first basic rules of personal finance requires that all consumers establish a workable budget and stick with it. For consumers with credit cards, this means you can’t spend on credit what is not in your budget.

Assign Cards a Purpose

The most effective method for using a credit card to improve your credit score and get the incentives you want from the card is to assign different purposes to different credit cards. If you have three credit cards, put one to the side to use for emergencies only. Utilize another for gasoline purchases or groceries. The third card can be solely used for online purposes. Not only does it make it easier to do your monthly expense tracking, you also can pinpoint episodes of fraud faster and you’re entire financial life will not be frozen at the same time if something goes wrong.

Never Miss a Payment

When you start using a credit card for purchases, it can be a good idea to set up automated payments to come out of your bank account each month. This lessens the chance you will forget to make a payment. Late or missed payments can drop a credit score significantly, especially if it happens more than once. It also means you will pay late fees, penalties, and finance charges. On the reverse side, by making regular and consistent full payments on your credit cards, the information will be reported back to the credit reporting agencies and improve the calculation of your three-digit score.

After Debt Paid Don’t Close Accounts

Make paying off existing credit card debts a priority by allocating as much money as you can to pay off balances. It may mean making sacrifices but the further you can reduce your credit card balances, the better your credit will get over time. Once you have eliminated the full balance, make sure you do not close the account. Doing so will change the ratio of available credit and can be especially detrimental if the account you close is the one you’ve had open for the longest period of time.

How to Utilize Credit Cards to Boost Credit Score was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

More banks have imposed new fees or increased existing fees that customers happily pay because they just don’t realize what has happened. Federal regulations on banks have caused the institutions to lose a tremendous amount of profits and as a result, higher costs have been passed on to customers. Banks are hoping to recoup their major loss in profits but are offering little in the way of incentives to the customer.

Here are some tips for reconsidering your business of banking that you can use to evaluate and make the necessary transitions:

Read Disclosures

Banks that make changes to customer accounts must give written notice of their intent. Unfortunately, many consumers fail to properly review or even read any correspondence from their bank, including their regular monthly statements. Disclosures contain a lot of fine print but it does provide an updated and accurate look at how your bank account is changing.

Review Your Statements

Luckily most banks now give customers online access to previous monthly statements. Take the time to log in and review these statements. You may be surprised at the new or increased fees you have been paying for services you often use. These increased fees many include ATM usage, checking account fees, and higher overdraft charges. Keep track of these new fees and add them up over a year’s time. You may find you can not afford to bank with your present institution.

Check Your Reliance

You may be surprise at how many times during the month you utilized bank services that cost you money. You may also find that you do not rely on your bank in a way that justifies the higher cost. Check how much you are paying and decide if it’s really worth it to stay where you are.

Speak with the Branch Manager

Brick and mortar banks have a manager on duty to help you clarify the changes taking place at your bank. If you are not aware of how recent federal regulations have affected your account, seek out the manager and discuss the issues you have or the questions you want to ask. Another recent to speak to a manager is to air out your complaints about recent changes to your account. Some banks may be willing to hang on to loyal customers are will offer a better deal or waive costs in order to keep you happy.

Go Elsewhere

If you have reviewed your banking services and decide that another bank may be in order, it is wise to research all of your options. Outside of the other large banks, consumers may receive better, more cost-efficient service from a local community bank or a credit union. Do your homework to find a better facility to handle your money. If your present bank is not willing to compromise, don’t hesitate to transfer your finds elsewhere.

Reconsider How You Bank: Tips for Making a Change was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Here are some ways to start revising a budget that is effective starting on the first day of a new year:

Gather Your Income Statements and Receipts

Starting before the rush of the holiday season will not only get you on track for the upcoming year, it can also help you plan for a more cost-effective holiday. Start during the fall months to collect your income statements from work and any other income you receive. Use that as a guide for how much you are expected to make in a year. You’ll need both the information and documentation for tax time and preparing this early will make it less likely you forget information. Use the list of expenses, both deductible and non-deductible to get an idea of how much of your income you spend and on what.

Create a Fresh Start

While you can use your former budget as a reference, it can help to restart a brand new budgetary sheet for the new year. Rather than just copy all of the categories you’ve used in the past, review your previous budgeting sheet to see where you can make cuts for the next year. Sometimes it takes seeing the big picture to truly understand the priority of cutting costs and sticking to a budget.

Review Your Year

There may have been times during the previous year where you were strapped for cash and came up short for the bills. Take the time to see where you struggled – are there any months in particular that were hard? You can then readjust your savings plan after making budget cuts to ensure you don’t have to go through money problems again for the coming year.

Resolve to Be Frugal

Since the holiday shopping season is a critical time of self-control in personal finance, it is also a great time to learn new ways to adapt to a more frugal lifestyle. Plan for the next year with frugality in mind by researching new ways to save on the biggest expenses you have within your budget such as grocery shopping, insurance costs, and transportation expenses. By pre-planning there is less pressure to make changes right now and you may be more apt to look at all of your options.

Review Your Services

You may have mindlessly paid your bills throughout the year without much thought to your actual satisfaction with services. Consider the changes to the banking industry in the last few months. Many bank customers are now paying more than ever for banking services that used to be free. The same is true of many service providers so take time during the last few months of the old year to evaluate the cost and customer satisfaction of the various services you pay for over the course of a year. Make the necessary changes to put more funds into savings for the new year and make your budget easier to commit to for the next twelve months.

How to Start Your Budget for a New Year was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Make Sure Your Credit Report is Correct

Your credit report may not be 100% accurate, so the first step to improving your credit score should start with verifying the information contained in your credit report is correct. Get a free copy of your credit report from each of the major credit reporting bureaus, and look it over for late payment notations on any account that you did not send in late payments for and make sure there are no accounts with balances that you have already paid off. If you find errors, follow the instructions to dispute them with the credit reporting agency that has inaccurate information.

Take Steps to Make All Payments On Time

One of the biggest factors to the calculation of your credit score is whether or not you pay your bills on time. To increase your credit score, you will want to make sure all of your accounts are paid before the due dates. Even payments made one or two days beyond the due date can have a negative impact on your FICO score. You can use your bank’s online bill payment features to automate payments; or log into your creditor accounts individually and schedule payments for automatic debit from your checking or savings account. This will eliminate an accidental late payment.

Focus on Debt Repayment

If you have high debt, you will want to focus on paying it off as quickly as possible. Your credit score takes into consideration the amount of money you owe in relation to the amount of credit available to you. Pay down debts so you owe less than 30% of your available credit and you’ll see your credit score increase over time. Don’t open new credit card accounts to increase your available credit, as a new account in your credit history will lower the average age of credit and can reduce your credit score. If you have an account on your credit report that has gone into collections, paying it off does not remove it from your credit report – it will remain on your report for seven years from the date it went delinquent.

How to Improve Your Credit Score was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

So does this mean that the fears of a double dip recession have passed and everyone can breathe more easily again? Sadly, not quite yet.

Whilst the news regarding a drop in the jobless comes as an undoubted boon, the figures are not yet at the point that would indicate that the market has recovered and is sustaining a robust hiring and growth climate.

The weekly tally for unemployment claims currently stands at 391,000, a 37,000 drop on previous figures, but still some way from the magic 375,000 figure that economists say is an indicator of a more stable outlook.

But even though theUScan not be described as being back on an even footing just yet, most experts agree that the threat of a double dip recession is rapidly evaporating and is unlikely to materialize.

Despite not sliding backwards into another recession, many households are still feeling the financial pinch and are finding there is too much month left at the end of their paycheck.

This is an uncomfortable position to be in, but it is important to take action to prevent the situation getting worse and protect any savings held in a bank or other account, so read more here about the kind of accounts that are available in the market.

For anyone struggling with money there are two things which need to be considered; what comes in and what gets paid out.

Much has been written about how to budget effectively and everyone has a different idea about how to go about it. But one thing every expert agrees on is that it is essential to write out what is spent every month rather than just trying to add it up mentally.

Writing it down allows contemplation time and seeing how much is spent written down on paper can be quite shocking and act as great incentive to make some changes.

Most people are able to save quite a bit of money by switching suppliers for utility bills and insurance as well as shopping around for the best deals for groceries, rather than just running to the nearest store out of habit.

Once all the last savings have been squeezed out of the expenditure, it is time to look at the other main factor; the money coming in.

In uncertain times, it is far more difficult to find a better paid job and even if this is possible, it is not always a good idea to leave secure unemployment with so many redundancies in the market.

It is therefore essential to find alternative ways to boost your money coming in – is it possible to do overtime at work, maybe for a different department if your own team’s workload is up to date?

If this is not possible, consider taking a second job – this can be a great way to meet new people as well as bringing in more money.

If neither of these are possible, think more creatively – do you have unwanted items that you could sell on an auction site online? Many people declutter their house and earn money at the same time – after all, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure…

Unemployment claims down – are the bad times over? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Everyone has heard about closing costs, but few people actually know what they consist of. Some home buyers end up saving hundreds of dollars in closing costs by being their own advocate and keeping track of every nickel and dime that goes on that bottom line.

The most popular option is having the seller pay closing costs on the loans. This becomes a common occurrence when a house needs to sell fast or has been on the market too long.

If you’re responsible for closing costs, break everything down. Make sure that your loan origination amount is calculated according to the amount of money you’re borrowing.

Some brokers take advantage of borrowers by charging exorbitant loan origination fees. If you have a strong credit and employment history, ask your lender to consider a lower fee.

When paying for an appraisal, make sure you’re not being over-charged. Appraisals generally run about $200 to $300 and you should always be given a copy of the appraisal.

Loan application fees generally cost about $50 for the lender to obtain a credit report. If the appraisal fee or loan application are more than this, ask for a better deal or seek another lender that will offer more affordable loans.

Take note of any wire transfer fees, underwriting fees, processing fees, or funding fees at closing. These are all excessive and should never be charged unless you are dealing directly with a broker. Other fees you may notice are minimal charges for couriers and document handling. Ask about these charges before signing and any other charges that don’t seem quite right.

While it may be perfectly normal to charge courier and document handling fees, it probably didn’t cost the bank $75 to handle paperwork.

Don’t be afraid to shop around for loans. Different lenders charge different amounts and may have very different fee policies from one another.

Keep in mind there are fees you simply cannot avoid. These include title fees, insurance, recording fees and tax-related fees. Title fees are added onto all loans, but different lenders charge different fees. You may find a better deal on loans elsewhere.

Third-party fees, however, should be fixed and will be the same no matter which lender you go to. Third-party fees are what pay for credit reports, settlements, government taxes and appraisals.

It never hurts to call ahead and ask lenders what they charge for certain fees. You can usually learn a lender’s origination fee by making a simple phone call.

Since origination fees do vary from lender to lender, this may be a good way to determine which lender is best for you. They should only be about 1% of the total loan amount.

The last thing to look out for is the yield spread premium. This is a cost not generally disclosed and may cost you thousands of dollars over the entire life of your loan.

Do your homework beforehand and don’t be afraid to ask questions regarding your loans. Every little fee adds up.

Buying a home? Avoid paying extra fees was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Getting Married: The day most women dream about all through their childhood marks an important milestone – and creates a variety of new tasks you should to to become better prepared. If there are large assets involved, a financial planner or prenuptial agreement may be a good idea.

If the assets are minimal, there are concerns to address now in the event on partner passes away unexpectedly – things like having powers of attorney and health-care proxies so that in the event one partner is incapacitated, the other can make decisions.

Having Children: In addition to the most common concerns of parenting and raising children, there are several other considerations when you begin a family. Who will take care of the baby while the parents work, or will one partner remain at home? How will you handle the loss of income and the increase of living expenses?

When you have dependents, it becomes imperative that you have life insurance in order – if one or both parents die, life insurance can help ensure the family has money to maintain their lifestyle. Wills, while important before, are an absolute requirement when you have dependents as you can designate who will become guardians of the children if both of you should die in an accident or for any reason.

Planning for the future of your children becomes just as important as planning for your own retirement. The earlier you start putting money aside for your child’s college education, the more they will have when they’re old enough to go to college. Try a 529 plan.

Divorce: No one wants to consider their marriage may end in divorce, but with the statistics showing that 1 in every 2 marriages ends in divorce, it’s necessary that you are prepared just in case. If your husband handles all of the finances and investments, they are likely to be in his name. Make sure you know where money is being saved or invested and where the paperwork is kept.

Put some accounts in your own name, even if you are the stay-at-home parent, or a housewife. There should be some assets and liquidity in your name as you may need access to money when going through mediation or divorce.

Death: If your spouse becomes terminally ill, get your financial affairs in order immediately. It’s not what you want to be thinking about during such a difficult time, but it can save you unbelievable stress later on.

If your spouse should die unexpectedly, not knowing anything about your family finances creates a nightmare that you must work through and your mind and heart will not be in any condition to be forced into worrying about such things. Hopefully, you will never find yourself in this situation, but it’s better to prepare for it and not have to use that preparation than to find yourself up the creek without a paddle, later! Create a balance sheet of assets and liabilities, and keep it up to date.

What Women Must Know During Every Life Event was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

For example, using a credit card for purchases over $100 offers additional protection if the vending company goes bust or fails to complete the order, compared to payment by other forms.

Credit cards offer convenience and a chance to pay after the purchase date. They may also offer additional incentives, such as airmiles, cash back or other sweeteners.

One particularly popular form of credit card in recent years is the balance transfer credit card. In a nutshell, it offers customers the chance to transfer existing expensive credit card debts, onto a single balance transfer card, with a low APR.

This offers the convenience of debt consolidation onto one card balance and should save money thanks to the lower APR – which may be over half as expensive in some cases, compared to traditional credit cards.

So far so good, but customers must still watch out before they switch and being doing balance transfers, or hefty penalties and charges may accrue.

Firstly, as with all financial products, it’s imperative to read the small print. The point of these cards is to carry out balance transfers and repay existing debts, with a lesser APR penalty.

What these cards should not be used for is additional spending. New purchases will generally attract a higher APR than the balance transfers amount transferred over.

The issuing company may try to encourage this spending via an initial promotional spending rate period, but once beyond this, the APR will hike up and these debts will be rolled over to the ‘back’ of the repayment queue.

This means that the spending portion of debt will continue to attract interest at the higher rate of APR – and only begin to be paid off once the transferred balance amount is totally clear.

Ultimately, this form of credit card should be viewed as a means to sort out your finances and get organised.

Order the most competitive one, transfer your existing expensive balances and then avoid using the card at all for any new spending.

Additionally, create a budget and live within it – focusing on the card repayment in its entirety. Using this type of card suggests that you’ve accrued several unpaid balances and this should be a sign to avoid taking out more credit.

For large ticket items where you do need cheap credit upfront, look at alternatives such as zero percent credit cards, which offer you the purchase protection for a larger amount and allow you to spread the repayments.

This might be useful for buying an annual travel card, or buying a holiday package in advance for later in the year. But again, focus on repaying within the zero interest rate period. Credit is a tool to be managed as part of an overall approach to personal finances and budgeting – so plan ahead.

How NOT to use a balance transfer credit card was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Home Owners

If you own a home, you might consider taking out a low interest home equity loan.  Place the loan into a high interest account that is FDIC insured to eliminate risk, and let it grow.  ING is a good example of a high interest account; either savings or checking, and you can withdraw the money if you need to in order to make a payment on the loan.  If you are considering this route, you’ll want to weigh the fees of obtaining the loan with how much the money will earn you while in the savings account.

Credit Cards

You can actually make money with your credit cards.  Look for offers for 0% balance transfers or 0% cash advances, preferably for twelve months or more.  Instead of using the card to make purchases, simply deposit the amount into your high interest account where it will earn money interest free for the year.  When the 0% interest period has ended, you can withdraw the money to pay it back, and keep the interest it’s earned.

Deposit $10,000 from a 0% credit card offer for 12 months in a 4.25% APY account, and you’ll have $425 at the end of the year.  Yes, you have to pay taxes on it as “earned income”, but it’s still money you wouldn’t have had otherwise.  If you did this every year, you could increase your earnings substantially – simply by adding money from new 0% offers into your account, and leaving your earned interest in the account. So the second year, maybe you would qualify for $15,000 from a 0% credit card offer instead of $10,000 since you paid it back on time; and you already made $425.  You are then earning interest on $15,425.  That year you’ll earn over $650 in interest.  After you pay back your $15,000 loan, you would have around $1075 in interest from the two years of making money off borrowed money.  You can decide whether or not to continue these methods of earning from borrowed money; or to move your $1000+ earned interest into a different investment or savings vehicle for long term growth.

Special Considerations

Whenever you consider ways of making money from borrowed money, you need to keep in mind that if you aren’t paying attention to the details of the loan, you can easily make a mistake that causes you to pay finance charges or interest.  If you are paying money on the borrowed money, you are probably not going to earn much (if anything at all) from the interest you can earn.

Additionally, when you borrow money, there is always the chance your credit score will drop temporarily. This is because you’ve increased the amount of credit you are using, and decreased the amount of your available credit.  Once you pay off the borrowed money your credit score should return to normal, but it’s important to consider that effect in case you have a need to borrow additional money during the time you’ve got your 0% credit card offer or low interest home equity loan earning interest for you.

This is a guest post by Car Finance 247 who are based in the UK and specialise in helping people with bad credit.

You Can Make Money With Borrowed Money was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

There are around ten main types of credit cards available and companies are always looking for new types of cards. The convenience of using cards far outweighs writing checks or carrying cash.

Types of credit cards include standard credit cards, those with extra rewards and cards with O% balance transfer. You can also get a credit card for bad credit if you have previously had financial difficulties.

The type of credit card you will be eligible for will depend on your credit rating. If you have a good credit rating, you will be able to access cards with a lower APR.

APR stands for ‘Annual Percentage Rate’ and this is the specific number used to calculate interest on your account. People with a higher credit rating will be offered a lower APR.

Some credit cards offer cash-back for the use of the card. Users receive a specific amount depending on the credit card balance. Typical rates in 2011 are around the 1% cash back mark.

Industry leaders, such as Wal-Mart or Disney, offer rewards that are linked to their company. Disney, for example, gives discounts at Disney stores or credit on one of their cruises.

Credit card lenders entice consumers to swap to their credit card by offering 0% balance transfers. Here, individuals can transfer an existing amount to a new card.

The new card will have a 0% transfer rate for a specific time limit. If you can pay the debt off within this time, you can save money by not having to pay interest.

Often a 0% rate will then be followed by a set period at a low APR. If this is less than the APR on your current card, it may still be advantageous.

The main point to remember is to be aware when rate changes will happen so that you are not suddenly paying a high rate. Some consumers swap cards many times to avoid this.

If you have a poor credit rating due to failing to meet repayments in the past or even experiencing periods of unemployment, you can still receive a credit card for bad credit.

This type of card is known as a credit builder. You will be charged a higher APR to start with, so you should try to pay your bill off in full at the end of the month.

APR rates will be variable but are commonly in the 30% plus range. By paying off your monthly bill, however, you will over time increase your credit rating and your APR will start to decrease.

If you do not want a credit card to repay, consider a prepaid card instead. Here you transfer money onto the card which you can then use just like a credit card.

There are no repayments therefore although some cards have an application fee, fee for ATM use and over-use fee. As with each card, always check the terms and conditions.

What Type of Credit Card is Right For You? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The move will take checks out of the equation and replace the archaic system with direct deposit. Currently 85% of beneficiaries get Social Security monies through bank direct deposits. The measure was introduced to prevent check fraud as a consequence of stolen checks. It will also help the government reduce the cost associated with issuing replacement checks.

It is estimated that the Treasury department will save over $1 billion within a ten year time frame by eliminating the paper check system. Additionally benefit recipients will receive their monthly payments in a safer, more efficient manner. It is also estimated that 12 million pounds of paper will be saved in the first five years which is good news for the environment as a whole.

For those still eligible to receive checks (about 10 million), they will have a two year window to make the change from paper checks to electronic deposits and all accounts will receive direct deposits effective March 1, 2013. The monies being deposited will be accessible on the payment date of each month with no wait for the US postal service to deliver their checks.

In light of the various identification scams and check cashing frauds, the direct deposit method may be the ideal tactic to keep benefit recipients safe from identity theft and other fraudulent hassles.

Social Security Adminstration Plans to Eliminate Paper Checks was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

It is predicted that families will not survive without opportunities for increased income. However, research shows that US workers are stuck between a rock and a hard place due to the lack of income-earning opportunities for the unemployed and the unlikely ability to be awarded raises at their current job. Manufacturing appears to be the only industry getting progressively healthier.

Analysts believe that the job market will continue to rebound and as American workers gain access to higher paying jobs and income increases, the consumer spending numbers will also go up. But right now Americans are finding it hard to increase their current spending amounts because they have to fork over the extra cash to make the commute in to work and feed their families. As of this week, regular fuel was averaging around $3.89 a gallon which is the highest pricing recorded since August 2008. Food costs are also a burden with costs rising 0.8% in just the last month which is the biggest increase seen since July 2008.

Consumer Spending Increased in March Thanks to Rising Prices was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Current debit card customers will not be affected by the changes. For now, these reward customers will still be able to continue to earn cash back, travel rewards as well as gift cards and gift certificates when they use their debit card for payment, among other things.

What is prompting the changes? Wells Fargo like other banks will soon need to replace revenue that they will be losing as a result of lower debit interchange fees. An interchange fee is the fee the bank charges the retailer when you use your debit card to pay for a purchase. The bank collects the fee and then shares the revenue with their partners including Visa and MasterCard.

According to data collected in 2009 from the Federal Reserve the average interchange fee collected from banks was 44 cents per transaction. While this number may seem small, the amount of revenue that is generated totals in the billions each year. Interchange fees are thought to currently generate approximately 16 billion dollars annually for the industry.

The revenue from interchange fees is more than likely about to take a severe hit, forcing banks to cut services and programs in order to save money. In December of last year the Feds proposed that the Interchange fee be capped at 12 cents per transaction. The rate change, if it passes, is scheduled to take place in July.

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo along with other banks are scrambling to find ways to cut expenses and make up for the revenue that they are about to lose. It appears that debit card rewards programs at Wells Fargo and other banks just may be seeing their demise.

Reference:

http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/50091/Wells+Fargo+Halts+Debit+Rewards

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Set To Stop Offering Debit Card Rewards was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

So should the US follow this example and create a tax-efficient savings vehicle for the under 18’s that can be used for something other than education?

In many ways, the fact that the 529 plan is so focused on education is what sets it apart from other savings vehicles.

If you decide to start a 529 plan then, in order to benefit from the tax breaks, any money saved can only be used on college related items such as tuition fees, books and supplies and any attempt to spend it elsewhere will result in the funds being subjected to tax.

On the other hand this could be viewed as a major flaw in the 529 plan as it could be the case that education may not be a strong point or a priority once your child comes of age.

This is where the UK model differs dramatically as there are no conditions on what the savings can be spent on and the money goes directly to the named trustee once they turn 18.

The Junior ISA is essentially a re-working of the now defunct Child Trust Fund (CTF) but the savings threshold has been increased from £1,200 per year to £3,000 per year possibly to compensate for the fact that the government no longer provide a cash incentive for savers.

Once the trustee turns 18 the Junior ISA then becomes a full cash ISA or stocks and shares ISA (read more on ISA products) and can be added to each year to benefit from the tax-free interest. Alternatively, the trustee can withdraw the money form the account to spend as they see fit.

The obvious downside to this is that the priorities of an 18-year-old and an 18-year-old’s parents can differ greatly and, despite the fact that the parents are most likely to have been the major benefactor, how the money is spent is ultimately down to the trustee.

Another way in which the Junior ISA differs from a 529 plan is that once the money has been put into the ISA it is ‘locked in’ and cannot be touched until the account matures.

The way things currently stand in the US is that many of the tax-efficient savings products are directly linked to a savings goal, such as the 529 plan for education or the 410(k) for retirement and this focused way of saving certainly has it’s advantages as it is much easier to stick to a savings plan if you know what you are saving for.

But would US citizens been keen on such an open ended savings account and could it be as big a success in the US as it has been in the UK?

Obviously this is impossible to speculate upon, but it is more than likely that a tax-free savings account would be welcomed by most, whether they are over or under 18.

Should the US follow the UK’s ‘Junior ISA’ model? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

When looking at your income, how do you actually know how much is enough? You can use your debt to income ratio to tell you. Working out your debt to income ratio can be quite simple, but it has brilliant benefits. It’s ideal for helping you to analyse your financial situation and where it is going.

It’s simple

The debt to income ratio is the sort of calculation lenders do when evaluating your financial progress, it gives them a great snapshot of your finances. The debt to income ratio doesn’t by any means give you detailed financial advice but it gives you a great snapshot of where you’re at.

The best thing about calculating your debt to income ratio is that it’s very simple. It’s as easy as adding up all of your monthly debts and all of your monthly income, so that you can make one simple calculation. To make sure you get an accurate figure that you can rely on, you should make sure you are thorough and that you try to include everything in your calculations.

Evaluate

To make sure you are as thorough as possible when making your calculations, grab a pen and paper and go from A to Z, it might be easier if you have 6 months worth of bank statements to give you a bit of guidance. Remember to include things like loans, balance transfer credit cards, mortgage payments, car finance, child support and all other debt obligations. Remember to work this out on a monthly basis.

The next step is to calculate your monthly income, firstly take your monthly salary, and add to it any auxiliary income that you may have, whether it is from a website you own or from a side business, try to include everything.

Calculate

To work out your debt to income ratio merely take your total debt figure and divide it by your total monthly income, then times this amount by 100 to give you your percentage. Here’s an example; if your debt figure is $1000 a month, and your monthly income is $3000, your debt to income ratio is 33%.

Analyse

So what does this figure tell us? You ideally want your % ratio to be as low as possible, the lower the figure the less debt you have compared to your income on a month to month basis.

This then proves that you are financially better off and knowing this information can help you to analyse your financial situation, in a very similar way to that of a lender when deciding whether or not to lend you money.

Calculating Your Debt to Income Ratio was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The suit was filed this week in New York and points to the time period from Jan through October of last year. During this time the bank’s stock value plummeted when allegations came out that the bank was hiding billions in debt and partaking in fraudulent foreclosure practices. Additionally, the bank is being accused of not properly filing mortgages that were acquired from Countrywide.

According to the complaint that was filed Bank Of America, “did not properly record many of its mortgages when originated or acquired, which severely complicated the foreclosure process when it became necessary.”

Shareholders say Bank of America’s stock traded at an inflated rate during much of last year. In April 2010 the shares reached their peak of $19.48. Soon after the problems came to light, the banks stock’s crashed falling nearly 42%.

Bank Of America has been dealing with the fallout since last October. As a result of accusations against Bank of America and other lenders, attorney generals in all states launched an investigation into foreclosure practices across the country. At the time Bank Of America voluntarily put all of their foreclosure proceedings on hold while they launched their own internal investigation. Foreclosure procedures have since been reinstated at the bank, but meanwhile several legal suits have resulted.

Shareholders filing this current suit are speaking out saying that Bank of America executives did not act in good faith. They are asking for damages in an undisclosed amount along with reimbursement for court costs, attorney fees and any other miscellaneous expenses.

Reference:

http://www.housingwire.com/2011/03/29/shareholders-take-aim-at-bank-of-america-executives

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-28/bank-of-america-board-sued-by-holders-over-mortgage-defects.html

Bank Of America (NYSE: BAC) Sued By Share Holders was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The panel had calculated the total amount of federal aid each bank had received during the bailout from TARP ($25 billion), the Federal Reserve ($88 billion), and the FDIC ($68.6 billion). Citigroup topped the list with Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) in a close second at $336.1 billion received. Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) came in third place with $135 billion in federal aid.

The Oversight panel was put together by Congress as a way to supervise TARP funds. The panel is expected to cease its operations within the week. It still has to put out its final report on the bailout of the financial sector. In general, the panel was positive about the government’s attempts to stabilize the global financial system and avoid a second Great Depression. While TARP did provide much of the necessary support in the efforts, it is not the only resource deserving credit.

One large criticism of the TARP program from the panel involved the issuance of billions of dollars to financial institutions without the requirement of banks reporting how the money was used. The result is that no one will ever be sure of how that money was spent. This occurred in the early days of the TARP assistance movement.

Additional criticism allege that the TARP program created a dangerous scenario where banks were not worried about loss as they expected taxpayers will bear the burden of any losses incurred. There was also concern expressed over the Treasury’s intervening assistance to the automotive industry since they were not directly working in the financial system. It was felt the risk in doling out funds to the auto industry had too much failure potential.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) High Up on List of Federal Aid Recipients was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Even the debts that stand late at 30 days or more have been declining each month. It is good news as the default data is an indicator of how defaults will play out in the future. Card payers seem to be eliminating balances racked up during the holiday shopping season for all major credit card providers across the board.

For Bank of America, the news is much different than it was in August 2009 when the bank had to write off 14.53% annualized of its consumer credit card debt. It also appears the card holders are getting more focused on eliminating credit card balances consistently. With the lowest default rates the bank has seen in three years, there is hope for US consumers staying on top of revolving debt. The national average of credit card balances has also dropped from $799.7 billion in December 2010 to $795.5 billion in February. Those statistics are similar to the numbers in the fall of 2004.

Customer Defaults Decline Again for Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

In the emails from Balboa, the Anonymous poster claimed over Twitter that fraud is alleged due to the bank hiding foreclosure information from federal auditors. There were also other allegations of wrongdoing by the bank made but no specifics were provided.

A former Balboa employee has stated that certain documents were approved to be removed from the internal system because of errors pertaining to flood insurance. The employee stated the bank had approved the file removal so that the mistakes would not be detected by federal auditors. In the emails, employees were apparently discussing the reasoning behind the documentation deletion.

Bank of America did not deny the emails existed but they did take issue with wrongdoing implications. They claim the former employee of Balboa stole the documents and was essentially trying to get press over allegations that were not true. The employee contests he did not steal the documents.

The bank also said they did not send out the letters with the errors. However, another employee of Balboa insists they were sent out with the erroneous information and a subsequent letter was sent to clear up the mistakes.

Bank of America is still waiting for the damaging documents said to be coming from WikiLeaks. Founder Julian Assange has promised these would be available early in the year and would cause much damage to the bank.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Leaks Suggest Fraud and More was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

A successful financial spring clean needs to take into account every aspect of your personal finances and then look at ways to reduce any ongoing debt, review the way you spend and save and, ultimately, make your money go further.

So to make a start on your financial spring clean you need to gather together as much information as you can, from bank and credit card statements to utility and insurance bills. Once you have collated this information it is time to take a closer look at your spending habits and see how you can pay off, or at least offset, some of that debt.

Check the interest rate on your current credit cards and then, if you really cannot repay the balance in full (something that you should ideally be doing at the end of each month), try to transfer them onto an interest free credit card to reduce your payments and ensure that you are not paying any interest on these repayments. And whilst you have all of this information to hand it’s a good idea to set up autopayments on your accounts as this means that you won’t run the risk of missing a payment and incur any associated charges.

The next thing to do is to review all of your other monthly bills, such as cable, cell phone and ultilities and assess whether you’re getting value for money or paying for services you are not using. For example, are you actually watching all of the cable channels that you are subscribing to? And if you have unlimited cell phone usage but are only actually using 200 mintues per month can you switch to a cheaper contract? Although such changes may appear to be small when looked at in isolation, they soon add up and can amount to substantial savings over the course of the year.

Now is also a good time to check the expiration dates on your home and auto insurance policies and, if they are up for renewal, contact your current provider and try to negotiate a better renewal deal and then shop around for an even better deal. You may be surprised at how much money you can save by simply switching providers.

Once you have sorted out your monthly commitments, it’s worth taking a look at your credit report and make sure that there are no errors present that could be having a negative impact on your credit score. If you do come across any anomalies then it is vital that you sort them out straight away and your credit referencing agency will provide you with instructions on how to query any errors on your report.

By this point your personal finances should be running like a well-oiled machine and you will hopefully have a least a little more disposable income at the end of each month. If this is the case, then you should use this extra income wisely and, if you haven’t already done so, consider putting some money into an LSA or another type of individual savings account.

If you do have extra money to invest or put into savings then you should also get together a compete record of your investment portfolio have it reviewed by a financial planner to ensure that you are getting the maximum return on your investments.

Article written by Les Roberts finance writer at Moneysupermarket.com

Give Your Finances a Spring Cleaning was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Trading Is A Business

Most new traders do not think of trading as a business, but the reality is that trading is a business.  Furthermore, real trading success is built over time, just as real business success.  The proper way to build a business is to have a written out detailed plan, called a business plan.  Then, as this plan is executed consistently, business will hopefully grow, and eventually a profit will be realized.  Keep in mind that most businesses will operate in the red (lose money) for a period of months or years before consistent profitability occurs.

Trade Plan Versus Business Plan

Just to be clear, a business plan is much different than a trading plan.  A trading plan defines your trading methodology and approach to the market, but a business plan defines your entire approach to the business of trading.  In fact, a trade plan is just one small part of the trading business plan.  Let’s break down a few of the key elements that need included in a business plan.

Mission Statement

What is your mission as a trader?  A business without a mission statement has no purpose, and a trader without a mission statement has no purpose.  This should not be written without thought.  Take time.  Think about it.  Look over business plan examples on the internet and look at mission statements of various companies.  This will help cast vision for the life of your trading career.

Education

How are you going to get educated?  Are you going to take a specific course or seminar through an educational company?  Do you have a friend or acquaintance who is going to teach you?  And how are you going to engage in ongoing education?  Are you going to attend a specific number of workshops a year?  You must have a plan for education and continuing ed.

Operating Budget

What is your trading budget each month?  What are your expenses?  Are you going to be subscribing to a news service, a charting package service, etc?  Do you want to purchase a specific number of books per month or quarter to stay fresh and inspired?  What about ongoing education?  Are you going to spend a specific amount of money each year attending conferences and workshops?  Will you be paying fees to one of the best brokers for platform services?

Company Goals

What are your goals as a trader?  Once you have defined your risk management and strategy approach, what kind of return do you hope to produce per month, quarter and year?  You must have these goals written out in detail.  Remember, the first step to achieving something in the world is to first have it on paper.

Trading is a business and it must be treated as such.  There are many more parts of a business plan that are not mentioned in this article; however, bookstores and libraries are full of books with endless business plan examples.  Remember, when you deduce your trading plans and goals to paper, your chance of achieving them will improve dramatically.  Therefore, consider treating trading as a business.

How To Write A Business Plan For Your Trading Business was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

During 1997 through 2006, mortgage lenders created a variety of no money down type programs and “loan to own” mortgages which eliminated the strict requirements previously needed to get a mortgage. Individuals did not have to prove their ability to repay the mortgage or have sizeable downpayments during this period, and lenders like Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup lent millions of mortgages to people they knew had little chance of fully repaying them.

The original mortgage lending practices are returning, where borrowers are required to come up with a 20% minimum down payment to qualify. To contract the difference, in 2006 the average home down payment was 4% of the purchase price, while in 2010, across nine major United States cities the median down payment was 22%.

Lower down payments make it possible for more homeowners to get into homes, but it leaves them with costly mortgages they can’t afford and results in high numbers of foreclosures. Even individuals who have managed to avoid foreclosures through mortgage refinancing programs offered recently are experiencing long term financial distress – since they owe so much more than their homes are worth in today’s market.

If borrowers can’t come up with 20% or more for a down payment, they can look at loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Currently, these loans require 3.5% at closing, but come with private mortgage insurance expenses and higher than average interest payments. While it offers the opportunity to get into a home, the monthly payments will be higher.

Resource:

http://www.housingpredictor.com/2011/banks-want-more-money.html

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), Citigroup (NYSE: C) Penalties Likely to End “No Money Down” Programs was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

As reported in a recent Bloomberg article, “’I’m sure the banks are ready to put this past them and investors would certainly like to but this is not an issue that is going to go away,” Blake Howells, an analyst at Becker Capital Management Inc. in Portland, Oregon, said in an interview. “There will be more lawsuits that come down the road.” Becker Capital oversees $2.4 billion.”

The cause for concern stems from investigations into faulty foreclosure practices which may have resulted in the foreclosure of homes which might otherwise have been avoided. Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup, Inc are the three largest lenders under investigation. It is believed that actions taken by these lenders or in some cases the lack of action may have resulted in the foreclosure of homes that should have been preventable.

In October 2010, Bank of America stopped foreclosure proceedings in all 50 states, followed by a November 5^th announcement that 102,000 cases are being reviewed for faulty practices. This as a result of investigations which revealed lenders have been foreclosing on homes without the proper documentation which stated they had a right to do so.

When it is all said and done, the banks involved may end up paying $20 billion in penalties for servicing flawed loans. In addition to fines and penalties, each lender will also be faced with “significant legal costs” as investigations and lawsuits continue.

Fines Likely For Bank of America and Wells Fargo (NYSE: BAC, NYSE: WFC) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Rescue workers were contacted as soon as it was realized where the baby was. They had to pump oxygen into the air–tight vault. The rescue workers along with a lock safe technician were finally able to rescue the baby about four hours after she became trapped.

Mike Lee of the Rockdale County Fire Department said, “During close down this evening, customers had left the bank and the toddler walked off and walked into the vault and just about the time the vault closed with its time lock.”

Gene Wilson, Police Chief of Conyers, GA told reporters that it was a “very tense scene.” The rescue time was just about four hours long.

Ron Snively was the safe tech who was called to the scene to help with opening the vault. It was reported that he said that the call was a typical one, except of course for the child being locked inside.

“This is what I do all the time, other than a child being in there it was an easy job. You take the drill point and unlock it,” he said.

“She was crying before I got to her. She was scared because of the drilling noise and all that, but once I heard her crying I knew everything was okay, it was just a matter of time,” he added.

Jay Lawrence, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo bank said that even though the baby was trapped for four hours, during that time no danger was posed to her.

Police Chief Conyers said, “She’s great. I think she had cried for a while but when they went in there she was just laying there, she took the fellow that opened the safe, she took him a note, and this is one of those things, this is a happy ending, it’s nice to have one of these.”

Resource:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/trapped-toddler-rescued-bank-vault/story?id=13008684&page=1

Baby Rescued From Inside Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Bank Vault was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

But to get the maximum benefit from any rainy day fund it’s always better to start saving sooner rather than later and a good way to get going is to create, and stick to, a budget plan.

But how do you go about creating a budget plan? Below are 5 tips on how to get started…how you go about sticking to it is up to you!

1. Consider the year gone by and the year ahead.

When looking to start a budget for the forthcoming year (never just plan for the month ahead) you first need to look back at the year gone by to work out your biggest outgoings as well as identifying any mistakes you may have made. An easy way to go about this is to collect bank statements from the previous year as these should give a good overview of the last 12 months’ income and expenditure. The make a note of the outgoings that remain constant for the forthcoming year, for example, rent, utility bills etc.

When you have highlighted these expenses it is important to then plan for the ad hoc expenses for the year ahead, such as household repairs, birthdays and even vacations. For example, if you spend $1,000 on a vacation then this should be factored into your budget at a level of between $80 and $90 per month.

Once all of these outgoings have been factored in, they can be offset against your income to form the basis of your budget plan.

2. Get the details right

Many budget plans fail to work out because they don’t take account of the small, everyday expenses such as money spent on snacks, newspapers and other sundries. And whilst these things may seem inconsequential at the time, a couple of dollars here and there can really add up, for example, paying $2.00 for a coffee on the way to work each day will add up to around $500 over the course of the year.

Similarly, it is best to try and avoid putting too many variables into one category, for example, the costs incurred when running a car. If you simply put a certain amount of money aside each month to cover your car’s running costs, you need to make sure that this category covers every aspect of running that car including things like, petrol, car insurance, breakdown cover, services, repairs, MOTs and even things like car washing and anti-freeze for the winter.

3. Keep records and keep them in order

Keeping a record of your incomings and outgoings is the only way to keep on top of and ensure you adhere to your budget. It’s a good idea to set up a budgeting spread sheet as this will work out your disposable income and give you an at-a-glance overview of your income and expenditure.

If you don’t have the capabilities to keep a spreadsheet then the easiest way to keep a record is to keep the receipts from any purchases you make, including online purchases, and then at the end of each month record when and where your money has gone. In keeping a comprehensive list of all your outgoings you’ll be able to identify exactly where your money has gone, something that is particularly useful if you happen to fall short one month.

And whilst getting receipts for every purchase may seem a little over the top, this is common practice in business and there is no reason why you shouldn’t be as thorough with your personal finances as you would be with your business finances.

4. Make saving the norm

The basic idea of creating a personal budget plan is to ensure that you don’t fall into debt, or at least don’t fall further into debt, but the ultimate aim is to have enough money at the end of each month to put aside as savings.

That is why, wherever possible, you should factor in savings as part of your budget. And it doesn’t matter if you can only put a few dollars aside each month as even a small amount can adds up to a decent ‘rainy day’ fund.

Once you have decided on an amount that you can comfortably save each month then it’s a good idea to set up a direct payment from your bank account to your savings account as this will make sure that the money is being put aside each month.

It’s also important that you pick the right savings account that will yield the greatest return on your investment.

As it is coming towards the end of the financial year in the UK, many investors will be looking at taking out an ISA account over the next few months, that is the tax-free savings account that is the equivalent of the LSA, or Lifetime Savings Account in the US. The best thing about these accounts are the tax breaks that you are given, for example, if you open an LSA, you can contribute up to $7,500 to is every year and whatever money you put in is non-tax deductable and whatever returns you gain on the investment are tax-free.

The greatest advantage of this type of account is that you have the freedom to save for whatever you want as, unlike an Education Savings Account, it doesn’t necessarily have to go towards a college fund though it can do if you wish. In addition, you can roll any other savings accounts you may have, such as an Education Savings Account, into your LSA.

5. Give up your bad habits

This is potentially the hardest thing you’ll have to do when budgeting to save money but giving up some or all of your bad habits will make a massive difference to the amount of money you have available to put aside each month. The amount of money that can be saved by giving up smoking, drinking or gambling can be quite staggering…although giving up any of these habits is quite an undertaking!

Even just cutting down on these habits can ensure you save a fair amount of money, especially if this is done in tandem with other frugal living tips such as cutting out any unnecessary car journeys and cutting down on the amount of take away or eat-out meals you have.

And taking steps to cut out drinking or smoking as well as preparing your own meals and walking more often can have some positive health benefits as well as financial ones!

Of course, there are more steps that can be taken but if take these 5 steps as a starting point and make sure you stick to them then 2011 could be a financially sound year.

Article written by Andreas Nicolaides, budgeting expert at Moneysupermarket.com

5 Steps to a Successful Budget was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The case involved was against Recon Trust Company NA, a subsidiary of Bank Of America. Suzanne A. North, has taken suit against the bank, stating that Recon Trust fraudulently tried to foreclose on her home.

Bank of America is fighting to overturn the injunction and says that they along with Recon Trust were within the perimeters of the laws in Nevada that pertain to foreclosures and that the borrower’s case does not have a chance.

Bank of America is also taking a strong stance and arguing that the halting of foreclosures in Nevada and across the country is ultimately harming local citizens and the public interest. They used a quote from Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary as a means to help support their case:

“Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner opined that ceasing the foreclosure process is `very damaging’ and harms the public as communities are forced to live longer with empty homes, there is increased downward pressure on home prices and increasing blight,” the bank said. “The order also harms those subject to the foreclosure process because those individuals, especially those in mediation trying to stay in their homes, are now forced into a state of limbo for an unspecified duration.”

Fighting back, north’s attorney does not plan to back down and has said that if necessary he will find others and seek class action status for the suit. This is not good news for the mortgage companies.

This Nevada case follows a similar one earlier this month in Massachusetts where the Supreme Court there voided two foreclosures when the banks were unable to come up with the proper documentation to prove that they actually owned the loans that were foreclosed on. This is a precedent that has opened up scrutiny for foreclosures across the country.

Reference:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2011/01/bank_of_america_seeks_to_overt.html#more

Bank Of America (NYSE: BAC) Planning To Appeal Nevada Judge’s Order Halting 8,900 Foreclosures In The State was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

In addition to the money donated in 2010, Wells Fargo team members volunteered their time, with more than 50,000 hours spent helping rebuild and renovate 650 homes – many of which were abandoned properties or foreclosures. The homes were rebuilt with green components and energy efficiency in mind. Additionally, Wells Fargo donated 19 properties to the Habitat, for use in creating affordable housing opportunities.

About The Habitat for Humanity

The Habitat for Humanity International was founded in 1976 through an ecumenical Christian ministry. The organization is committed to eliminating poverty housing through rebuilding, rehabilitating or improving houses around the world. Since it’s inception, the Habitat for Humanity has improved more than 400,000 homes and created affordable shelter for more than 2 million people. You can offer volunteer time or money contributions to support their efforts by visiting Habitat.org.
Pledge for 2011

Wells Fargo’s Housing Foundation has made an additional pledge of $5 million for the Habitat for Humanity’s “Money for Muscle” team member volunteer program to be made during 2011.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company was founded in 1852 and is currently headquarted in San Francisco. They are a community-based financial service company that provides banking, mortgages, consumer and commercial financing, insurance and investments through more than 9,000 store locations and via the internet on wellsfargo.com and wachovia.com. They currently service one out of every three households in the United States.

Reference:

http://www.vadvert.co.uk/society/8344-wells-fargo-exceeds-8-million-commitment-to-habitat-for-humanity-in-2010-by-nearly-50-percent-providing-11-8-million.html

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Contributes $11.8 Million to Habitat for Humanity in 2010 was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Wells Fargo came in second only to JP Morgan Chase in 2010 in terms of net income. The bank has reported a net income of $12.4 billion for 2010, surpassing their income from 2009. In 2009 the bank became the top mortgage lender and stayed on top in 2010. The bank originated $386 billion in home loans while competitors like Bank of America spent the majority of their time trying to recover from troubled mortgages.

“Wells is in a uniquely strong position to continue to outperform its peers,” says Andrew Marquardt, an analyst at Evercore Partners in New York. “They have weathered the storm far better than most.”

While other banks are still struggling with the impact of the mortgage crisis, Wells Fargo seems to have pushed through to the other side. This does not mean that they have not had their fair share of difficulties along the way. Back in 2008 when the bank bought Wachovia they inherited a portfolio full of option-ARM mortgages. These mortgages tend to have a history of high default rates. To date, Wells Fargo still has $90 billion worth of unpaid principals from this batch of loans, so they could still have difficulties with these loans down the road. When Wells took on the loans however, they did take the precaution of setting aside $26 billion to cover losses and they still have not exhausted these funds.

Looking ahead Wells Fargo is planning to branch out to new opportunities, possibly lending to mid size businesses. During 2011 the bank plans to increase its work force by 10% in the area of business lending. Currently they have 2,400 employees who work with businesses that have somewhere between $10 million and $500 million in revenue.

Additionally, the bank plans to begin offering a wider variety of other types of loan products and letting their local branch salespeople have the authority to make these loans. Currently Wells Fargo operates 187 commercial banking branches in locations around the US.

Reference:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_06/b4214043656537.htm

It’s Full Steam Ahead For Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Currently the unemployment rate for women stands two percentage points lower than the rate for male unemployment. Women are also pegged for being in better positions for the areas of job growth especially in health care.

It is predicted that consumer companies who produce clothing, cosmetics, health and beauty aids, and other female-focused products will increase their stock value as more women gain control of the purchasing power within a household. Even single working women are predicted to increase their spending on products to cater to themselves. In addition to female targeted products, there is also to be a predicted increase in spending on vacations, home accessories and furniture, and medical cosmetic procedures.

There are 26 companies which fit into the ‘long women’ investment strategy including J.C. Penney Co., Macy’s Inc., Kohl’s Corp., Nordstrom Inc., Saks Inc., Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., Williams-Sonoma Inc., Pier 1 Imports Inc. Walt Disney Co., Estee Lauder Cos., AnnTaylor Stores Corp., Express Inc., Coach Inc., and Tiffany & Co.

The economy of the US will continue to grow as it stabilizes from the worst recession experienced since World War II. Policies and stimulus plans instituted by the Obama administration is expected to bring down the unemployment rate of the US and boost the largest economy in the world.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Encourages ‘Women’ Investments was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

According to information attained through Verizon representatives, customers who are already enrolled in the program through an existing contract will be able to redeem the credits they have accumulated.  Once these existing customers upgrade and redeem their remaining credits, the program will end.  Customers new to Verizon will not be eligible. Eventually once all existing customers’ cash in their credits and upgrade the “New Every Two” program will cease to exist. 

Verizon announces on its website that at this time there are no early upgrade promotions being offered. Verizon sources do report that at the 20 month mark of a 24 month contract will be the earliest that a customer will be able to upgrade to a new phone, while some customers still indicate that some current iPhone upgrades have been offered even earlier than 20 months.

February 10^th will mark the introduction of the CMDA iPhone 4 designed and marketed in a new partnership between Apple and Verizon.  The technical preparation for this phone was reported by Verizon to take between six and nine months.  CMDA stands for code division multiple access which means that many transmitters are allowed to send information at the same time using one communication channel.  In anticipation of the demand for this new very technically savvy phone, preorders are estimated to begin in early February for Verizon customers.    

The changes to the existing Verizon programs will mean increased costs for customers.  According to reports from competitors such as AT&T, profit margins for the company shrunk due to early upgrades, waiving of processing fees and programs that allowed customers significant discounts on phones through special promotions.  Verizon takes a loss every time a customer upgrades at a discount and even more of a loss if they upgrade early.  Luckily the changes to the existing programs are one way to eliminate loss potential. The changes to existing programs are one way to ensure that Verizon will not take a loss on their bottom line and remain a leader in the industry.

Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ) “New Every Two” is No More was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

This Detroit based automaker recorded a profitable year for 2010 and many might wonder why there will be no increase in salaried pay. As reported by myfoxdetroit.com, “Spokeswoman Marcey Evans said Ford surveyed 21 peer companies, including General Motors and Chrysler, and determined that its salaries are competitive.” In addition, many automakers, including Ford are still feeling the sting from 2009 financial troubles within the industry and economy at large. As a result, Ford and others may be hesitant to add annual pay raises that will increase the overall structural costs moving forward. By awarding salaried workers performance bonuses, individual workers still receive compensation while keeping annual costs in that area the same.

When automakers manage annual costs, they are in a better position to remain competitive without driving the price of their cars and trucks upward. Dan Akerson, CEO of General Motors had a similar statement to the Automotive News World Congress. Akerson stated, “Three percent times five years in a row is 15 percent added to your cost structure. All of a sudden you’re starting to really narrow the possibilities and flexibility of any reaction to a downturn. It’s very difficult to overcome.” GM who also used to offer annual pay raises will be paying bonuses based on company performance.

Ford will also be issuing profit-sharing checks to it’s 41,000 blue-collar workers in the U.S. sometime in March. The bonus check amounts for salaried workers will not be determined until after the company posts it’s fourth quarter earnings for 2010.

Ford employees are not the only people anxiously awaiting bonus checks. As reported by Freep.com, “hourly and salaried workers are eager to see how much their profit-sharing and incentive-based bonuses will be this year. So are local retailers and other businesses, which are accustomed to workers spending a little more freely, especially on big-ticket items, after the checks roll in.”

Ford (NYSE: F) To Test Drive Bonuses For Salaried Workers Versus Raises was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Understanding Debt Expiration

Expired debts are debts that have been in existence for more than seven years without any type of activity on the account.  Legally, a person is not obligated to pay these debts because of a legal statute of limitations placed on collections of debts that are older than seven years. These laws were created to prevent collection agencies from collecting on debts that are impossible to validate.  Even though attempting to collect this type of debt is unlawful, there are debt collection agencies that try to collect these debts. They rely on a person’s lack of knowledge of debt collection laws to collect money they are not legally entitled to obtain.

Why Attempt To Collect These Debts?

The debt collection companies purchase debt from the original creditors for pennies on the dollar. If they can collect any portion of the original debt, it is pure profit for the debt collection agency.  Because of this, some debt collection companies use highly aggressive collection tactics to obtain as much money as they can. These unscrupulous companies want to get the individual to pay the debt more quickly without asking too many questions about what is owed. People could avoid paying these noncollectable debts if they were more informed about the practices of debt collectors, however, most people, including college students, don’t know the law. That’s why college debt statistics show that students on average end up in five figures of student loan debt.

What Is The Solution?

If a debt collection company is contacting you to try collecting on a debt that is more than 7 years old, you can inform the debt collection agency that you are fully aware of the laws and any further attempts to collect that debt will result in a report under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  In some cases, alerting the companies is not enough as there have been cases where representatives of the company have changed dates to reflect current activity on the account to extend the period of time the debt is valid. The company should be reported under the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act and you can take the collection agency to small claims court to have them pay damages for harassing you about a debt. They will lie to you and tell you to things like debt consolidation to get out of debt, but don’t listen.

How to Get Debt Collectors Off Your Back was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The announcement came in part because the bank needs to make up revenue that has been lost thanks to the new regulations imposed on banks. Most banks have tried to tack on fees anywhere possible in order to gain back lost profits. Consumers quickly began to express unhappiness with the higher costs of normal banking transactions, many of which used to be free. It also said the fee structure will be changed due to feedback it has been receiving directly from customers.

Bank of America has decided to test its changes in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Georgia and customers in those locations will need to deposit more money into their accounts to avoid the new charges. After the test program ends, nationwide changes are expected to go into effect next year with appropriate and necessary changes.

The bank has been struggling to make revenue after they faced regulation changes about other fees and overdraft charges. According to bank representatives, the new changes will offer more options for customers to avoid fees. They are attempting to refocus efforts on better customer relations rather than just selling products to consumers.

Many consumers have been opting to go with smaller community banks since big banks have not been living up to expectations. The deposits into local banks have increased over the last year but it is not immediately clear if the monies were transferred out of bigger banks accounts.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Customers to See More Fees was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

First, the advantages. Roth IRA accounts are simple to get started and there is a variety on investment options for the money you contribute. You can disperse your money in products like mutual funds, stocks, CD’s, real estate and more. Even better, all of the money you contribute to the IRA will grow tax free.

Unlike other types of retirement accounts, you will not get penalized if you decide to withdraw from the funds you have contributed to the account, no matter what your age. In addition, when you turn 59 ½ you can start to take out the earned money without paying any fees.

If you are ready to buy a home and need additional funds, you can withdraw money from your Roth IRA to help with your down payment. You can even withdraw account earnings in the amount of up to $10,000. The only stipulation is that the home you are purchasing must be your primary residence and not a vacation or investment property.

Another great advantage or the Roth IRA, unlike other retirement products, is that you do not have to start taking funds out of the account by a certain age. Also, if you were to die, your account is transferred to your beneficiary (usually your spouse) who can combine it with their account, penalty free.

As you can see the benefits of having a Roth IRA are great, but before you open your account you should also consider the cons.

First off, all of your contributions to the Roth IRA will be taxed up front and your contributions do not reduce your adjusted gross income for the year. Contributions to regular IRA’s and other retirement plans will adjust your annual gross income.

There are also strict income limitations and if you do not meet them, you cannot even open a Roth IRA account. If you do open a Roth IRA and down the road your income increases past the income cap, you will no longer be able to contribute funds to your account. In addition, you are only allowed to contribute a certain amount of money each year. Currently if you are 49 years old or younger you can contribute$5,000 per year and if you are 50 years or older you can contribute $6,000 per year.

Finally, if you need to tap into your account earnings before the age of 59 ½, early withdrawal fees come with the price tag of 10%.

Pros and Cons for Roth IRAs was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Even though many homeowners have looked into this trial modification plan, many have stated that is exceedingly difficult to actually obtain such a modification to their mortgage. Many homeowners have also complained of an extended stay in the trial modification and periods where they were seeking a more long term modification option.

Wells Fargo and Wachovia homeowners don’t have to feel like they have no options in this matter. They do still have opportunities which could offer them the capability to try to access a trial modification plan from the Making Home Affordable Program. This program could benefit those homeowners that are facing foreclosure on their home. The trial modifications from servicers such as Wells Fargo and Wachovia are being tracked with the Making Home Affordable Servicer Report. This report has indicated that there was an increase in the amount of homeowners that were using the trial modifications in October and November of 2010.

As reported on The Red White and Blue Press, “As of the October 2010 report, Wachovia Mortgage had 4,463 active trial modifications and Wells Fargo reported 11,297. Totaled, the trial modifications stood at 15,760 as of October, but according to the November 2010 report Wells Fargo/Wachovia had a combined total of 16,612 active trial modifications.”

There are still numerous homeowners that are frustrated with servicers such as Wells Fargo and Wachovia when it comes to plans that are offered from the Making Home Affordable Program. Homeowners are usually advised to consult their mortgage servicer for trial modifications and permanent modifications, but they are also able to consult with a reputable housing counselor from the FHA, HUD, and the Making Home Affordable Program.

Not all of the homeowners that are consulted with such services and go through the modifications will be able to avoid foreclosure. Many do get such from their mortgage servicer and or from the government to help to assist them in this time of need, so it is well worth it to seek this help and assistance when someone is in such crisis.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Continues To Struggle Satisfying Homeowners With Make Home Affordable Program was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

In the investment market, stocks are known as the investment of greed and gold as the investment of fear. Are you scared that the only way to pay off the nation’s huge amount of debt is by printing more money in the market? Well, if you’ve incurred huge amount of unsecured and secured debt and you’re worried about how to get out of debt, investment would perhaps be the best option for you. As there is already inflation, the value of gold has soared higher during the inflationary period. The slow US inlfation has already tarnished the value of precious metals like gold and it has been seen that the lower than expected inflation and the appreciated value of the dollar have weighed down the value of gold.

However, the chairman of the Federal Reserve has nullified any threats on the US economy due to the rising prices of the precious metals like gold. He has reportedly said that thet there is no suggestion of a recent surge in the gold prices threatening any kind of inflationary pressure on the US economy. Among the other commodity groups, gold is behaving differently in the current economic market. The movements in the gold price is hardly comprehendible but it is also anticipated that there is a lot of uncertainty and anxiety regarding the price of gold in the financial markets. There are still many people who think that holding gold will be a hedge against the fact that the other investments that they hold are risky and harder to predict at this point of time.

As the concerns of a possible inflation continue to prevail among most investors, they are looking forward towards deploying inflation hedges like gold and precious metals in spite of their recent collapse. The rationale behind this differs from attempting to restrain the risk of traditional assets using strategic asset allocation to diverse the fears of another hyperinflation folloewed by the massive budget deficits in the balance sheet of the US Federal Reserve.

In New York, there are some customers who have always favored investing in gold as they find it the best way to park their money. But unfortunately with the price of gold going up and setting records every week, there are few consumers who think of investing in gold. As the inflation rate in increasing, every dollar is purchasing the lesser ounce of gold. The price of gold rallied to a record high level in Europe in the later half of November, 2010. The spot prices of gold were $1300 per ounce and there were expectations that further quantitative easing could also lead to volatility in the present currency markets. Two weeks later, the price of gold surged higher to $1396.35 an ounce. The rate was $900 two years back. Despite the increase in the price of value of gold, what had prompted so many investors to buy this metal? Well, the low interest rates, falling value of the dolalr and the confusion about holding too much of government debt have prompted most investors to invest in gold rather than a risky promise.

Among the financial circles, the financial analysts think that there is a rise in the price of gold due to two most unlikely reasons. The first one is that consumers who are worried of how to get out of debt find gold investment as the safest financial instrument to hedge the risks of investing in other financial instruments. The second reason is that globally, all the central banks of India, Bangladesh and other developing countries are worried about a falling dollar value.

Lately, it has been surveyed that gold has been the last thing the people sell due their sky high prices. The Federal Reserve has played an important role in the recent increase in the price of gold while its interest rate committee had already guessed at further efforts of the Federal Reserve to lower the borring rates. With the drop in the value of the dollar, there were fears that a further downward fall could again lead to the risk of another inflation. But gold has gone its own way, irrespective of the fall in the currencies or other assets.

Unnatural rise in the price of gold creates anxiety about the economy was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Typically, when a credit card balance is 180 days past due, it is considered to be uncollectable. Uncollectable credit card debt has been a big problem since the recession began, however Citibank seems to be moving ahead. Citibank, during the month of November saw the biggest drop in uncollectable credit card debt when compared to the other top credit card issuers in the country. Their rate dropped from 10.27% in October to 9.4% in November, a difference of .87%.  This is good news for the company as rates seem to be consistently declining since their peak. Citibank’s rate peaked back in August 2009 when delinquencies topped off at 12.14%.

This was not all. Other good news for Citibank showed that those card holders whose payments were just 35 days behind also fell to the lowest levels seen in two years. The rates fell to 4.74% for the month of November. This is down from October’s rate of 4.93%.

For the last two years consumer credit card debt has been slowly but steadily declining. This can be attributed to a number of factors. Many consumers seem to be looking to reduce their credit card spending and have become more reluctant in using plastic.  Lenders have tightened standards for obtaining credit and have also been reducing credit card limits when they feel it is necessary. Additionally, many banks have already written off large amounts of uncollectable debt, which also played a role in lowering the total credit card debt held by consumers.

An analysis by the Federal Reserve shows that credit card debt has dropped in recent months to the lowest levels seen since May of 2005. In looking ahead it is projected that this number will continue to fall during 2011. Across the credit card industry the charge off rate hit its highest point during the second quarter of 2010 topping 10.7%. According to data collected by the Federal Reserve, prior to the recession the average was just 3.8%.

Citibank (NYSE: C) See Big Drop In Credit Card Delinquencies was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The Nexus One, Google’s smartphone was recently launched, but it failed to create much buzz and many of the wireless carriers selected not to overly promote the new phone because it was competing with their other smartphones at their stores.

Google is now ready to jump into the hardware market, which is a different market altogether that isn’t specifically linked to any specific wireless carrier or data network. One of these first new products will be a product that has the Google brand on it that is being made by a third-party manufacturer.

Google’s ultimate goal is to put the Chrome operating system into as many products that they possibly can. This includes netbooks, tablets, laptops, and desktops. Google has experience in doing this with the Google Android, which is a quickly growing smartphone operating system that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has recently been giving to smartphone makers, and has been working quite well.

Google is confidant in the Chrome operating system because it is an operating system that is truly focused on making the electronic device compute faster by moving as much of the computing activity as possible to the cloud, and then running the system on only the bare minimum on the actual hardware.

As stated in Daily Finance, “This fulfills Google’s longtime mission of pushing activity off the desktop or the laptop and into places where Google is particularly strong — software as a service and data centers. Should Google’s strategy take hold, it could have tremendous repercussions for both users and other players in the technology space. With Google Chrome devices, users do not need to worry about storing or backing up their data because these tasks (both time consuming and fraught with mistakes on traditional PCs) are performed by Google or other remote services. In theory, an enterprise running Google Chrome could eliminate a huge chunk of the duties now relegated to system administrators. Ultimately, Google Chrome could provide a challenge to the very existence of traditional software products and operating systems built around the notion of the PC or hardware as the central node in the computing experience.”

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chrome OS Will Soon be Available on Netbooks was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

These particular loans are called Pick a Pay adjustable rate loans. These loans were targeted to those who could not start with a full payment, giving them an option to pay less. The problem was that these loans offered homeowners the choice of making a regular monthly payment or a lower, more affordable one. When home owners chose the lower payment, the amount rarely covered even the interest of the loan. When these loans readjusted, payments rose so high that many homeowners could no longer keep up with them.

Many of these home loans have already been foreclosed on and Wells Fargo also agreed to a settlement for these individuals. Right around 12,000 homeowners who held these types of loans will receive payments from Wells Fargo with the bill totaling right around $32 million. On average, each home owner will receive a check for $2,650.

In a statement Jerry Brown, CA Attorney General said, “Customers were offered adjustable-rate loans, with payments that mushroomed to amounts that ultimately thousands of borrowers could not afford. Recognizing the harm caused by these loans Wells Fargo accepted responsibility and entered in this settlement with my office.”

Brown went on to emphasize that none of these loans originated with Wells Fargo and that the company has been working to help troubled home owners whose loans the bank inherited. To date, in California, Wells Fargo has already helped 50,000 home owners. The bank has spent $2.9 billion to help reduce loan costs for those struggling to keep up with payments.  When the housing market and economy crashed it hit these homeowners hard and without the help many more home owners may have lost their homes.

Additionally, the bank is also working on settlements in several other states and has already helped homeowners in Florida, Texas and Nevada, to name just a few.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Is Helping CA Home Owners Through Loan Modifications was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The Michigan Assembly Plant will be the home for the new global Ford Focus that has already started production, and will go on sale next year. The new Focus Electric vehicle has zero emission and will go into production towards the end of 2011. The next new hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicle will be in production in 2012.

As explained in Ford’s press release, “We’ve modernized just about every square foot of this facility to establish a new standard for a high-tech, green, flexible and efficient auto factory,” said Jim Tetreault, Ford vice president of North America Manufacturing. “The transformation of Michigan Assembly Plant stands as a symbol for the transformation of Ford.”

On the outside of the Michigan Assembly Plant, a brand new 500-kilowatt solar panel system is going to be installed to help generate renewal energy that they use for producing Ford’s Focus and Focus Electric vehicles. There will also be ten new electric vehicle charging stations that will be used to charge the electric trucks that transport parts to other Ford facilities.

On the inside of the Michigan Assembly Plant there are changes too. As explained in the Ford press release, “New cars making the three-mile trip down the assembly line must pass dozens of rigorous quality inspections. A new three-wet paint booth utilizes 66 paint robots with seven axis of movement to precisely apply paint to the cars. In the body shop, 500 new robots capable of 4,000 welds per vehicle add to the plant’s flexibility. And a new internal communications system flashes updates and information to the plant’s 3,200 employees via 163 monitor screens distributed throughout the plant.”

These new changes at the plant will allow multiple models down the same production line without having considerable downtime to change tools used. As Ford explained, “Two different models of the Focus can be adjusted between builds without restrictions.” This will save a considerable amount of downtime and raise productivity at the plant.

Overall, Ford wants to ensure quality. As stated in their press release, “We are leveraging our people, processes and products to consistently build cars that will surpass the competition,” said Tetreault. “This plant embodies everything we as a company strive to become – modern, efficient, flexible, global and sustainable.”

Ford (NYSE: F) Manufacturing Plant Upgrade Reflects Industry Trends was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The company was quick to say that they have been looking at this issue all year and that they are not changing the policy because of the pending legislation, but rather as a way to help meet customers’ needs. A Wells Fargo representative stated that, “We constantly are looking at our policies and looking at how our policies match up to customer needs.” The new loan provisions will take effect immediately on Friday of this week and will apply to all loans that are currently held by students.

To get the word out the company will be announcing the changes on their web site and contacting colleges and universities throughout the country to pass on the news to their students. They will not be sending out letters to their current loan holders but future loan applications will state the new policy.

It may be that Wells Fargo would have been forced to change their policy if the Senate votes yes on a proposed bill that has already been signed by congress. The Christopher Bryski Student Loan Protector Act Bill is waiting for a Senate vote and if passed would require all banks who issue student loans to forgive the debt at the time of the primary holders death of if they were proclaimed to be permanently disabled. There are many families throughout the country who after the death of their loved one, have been left with the burden of their loved ones’ student loan payments. This bill is in honor of one such family, the Bryski family who today struggles to pay back their son’s student loan debt which totals over $40,000.

Currently, student loan lenders seem to be split on the issue of whether or not student loan debt should be forgiven. One of the largest holder’s of student loans, Sallie Mae, has a forgiveness policy in place, while other companies do not. Student Loan Corp, another large lender does not forgive student loan debt and has voiced their opinion. Company spokesperson Mark Rogers stated, “A cosigner accepts responsibility for a loan if the other party is unable to pay, and they are expected to honor the contract as they would other obligations,”

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) To Forgive Student Loans When Loan Holder Dies Or Becomes Disabled was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The board of directors of AT&T increased the quarterly dividend rate from $0.42 to $0.43 per share on a quarterly basis. That may not seem like much, but this would actually equal an increase from $1.68 to $1.72 per share on an annual basis. When shareholders have many shares, this could equal very large returns.

AT&T also announced a new share repurchase authorization for 300 million shares of AT&T. This authorization does not have an expiration date and will be available until all shares are purchased. These shares represent about five percent of outstanding shares of the company.

As stated in the AT&T’s press release, “This dividend increase, combined with the repurchase authorization, reflects the board’s confidence in our ability to generate strong cash flows,” said Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T. “We have continued to invest to deliver the connectivity that is vital to the lives and business of our customers, and I’m proud that, at the same time, sound financial management has enabled us to lead the industry in returning cash to stockholders, even while reducing debt.”

This announcement from AT&T mirrors their constant commitment to “a disciplined financial policy” that will allow the company to continue to strategically invest in its business and also return cash to their stockholders while continuing to maintain a strong balance sheet each year. In a time of financial insecurities and risks in the stock market, this is making their stockholders quite happy.

As stated in the AT&T press release, “the dividend will be payable on Feb. 1, 2011 to common stockholders of record on Jan. 10, 2011. The timing and nature of share repurchases are subject to market conditions and applicable securities law.” AT&T also disclaims that any financial estimates and forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and that they have the right to update and revise statements that were released based on new information that may be updated at any time.

AT&T (NYSE: T) Announce a 27th Consecutive Annual Increase in Quarterly Dividend was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

According to the Consumer Reports satisfaction survey that was given to 58,000 ConsumerReports.org readers, AT&T scored the lowest out of the cell phone carriers in the United States. Out of all of the carriers that were rated, AT&T was the only cell phone carrier that dropped significantly in the customer’s overall satisfaction for the carrier.

Out of the survey respondents that used AT&T as their cell phone carrier, over half of them owned a version of the Apple iPhone. This phone is one of the smartphones that is exclusive to AT&T, at least for now.

According to the Consumer Reports data that reflects all versions of the iPhone for AT&T customers, found that those with the iPhone were much less satisfied with their cell phone carrier and related data services for the web and e-mail. This data was compared to that of owners of other smartphones with other rated carriers that have a large range of apps which use a large amount of data on their phones. As stated in Consumer Reports, “Our survey suggests that an iPhone from Verizon Wireless, which is rumored, could indeed be good news for iPhone fans,” said Paul Reynolds, Electronics Editor for Consumer Reports.”

Another big piece of news for this year’s survey is that U.S. Cellular beat out Verizon Wireless as the top rated cell phone provider for contract service. U.S. Cellular only serves 26 states in the United States, and is mainly just in the South and Midwest. Sprint also ranked as being even in overall satisfaction with Verizon Wireless, and even pulled out ahead in some aspects of their customer service. This comes to a surprise to many because Verizon Wireless was the clear winner for cell phone provider in ratings for Consumer Reports in most years since 2003.

For more information about the Consumer News report, and to see for yourself, check newsstands December 7, 2010 for the January issue of Consumer Reports. It is also available online at consumerreports.org. Subscribers will be able to view the full Ratings and also see further details on the report, including a “city by city Rating for 23 metro areas.”

AT&T (NYSE: T) Worst Carrier for Cell-Service According To Consumer Reports Survey was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The bank’s market value rose to $157.6 billion in December 2010 compared with JP Morgan’s stated value of $156.4 billion. When assets are taken into account Wells Fargo is ranked fourth behind, Bank of America Corp, JP Morgan and Citigroup Inc.

The acquisitions strategy used by Wells Fargo under the guidance of Chief Executive Officer, John Stumpf has been very successful. Under his guidance, the bank made over 55 asset purchases in the past five years. Bloomberg Data indicates they spent $12.7 billion on the takeover of Wachovia in October 2008. This raised the value of assets from 622.4 billion to $1.2 trillion in September 2010.

The value of Wells Fargo shares in December 2010 is around $30.02. A recent gain of 0.8% followed an 11% advance during the previous months of 2010. The largest shareholder in Wells Fargo is Warren Buffet’s Hathaway Group.

The Bank of America stock, during 2010, has not been as successful on the stock exchange. Currently valued at $126.3 billion it is significantly less valuable as a stock than Wells Fargo. The current Bank of America share is valued at $12.52. Citigroup is also more valuable despite its bail out by the US government. Citigroup is valued at $133.2 billion.

Although it is smaller than The Bank of America and Citigroup, Wells Fargo is a more popular stock possibly due to its acquisition program. Analysts feel Wells Fargo will boost its dividend to shareholders during 2011. They also see Wells Fargo shares will increase in value.

Recent payouts from Wells Fargo were paid on December 15, 2010. Series J shareholders received a quarterly cash dividend of $20. A quarterly cash dividend of $18.75 was paid to Series L shareholders.

Wells Fargo continues to rank No 1 in customer satisfaction surveys. This will support the share values. Carrie Tolstedt, head of Community Banking, said, “Providing a consistent and exceptional customer experience is one of the best ways we can achieve our company’s vision of satisfying all our customers’ financial needs and helping them succeed financially. As always, we will continue to look for ways to improve our service.”

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) is the Most Valuable US Bank was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

According to the files in the lawsuit that Bank of America filed at the New York Supreme Court, the database that Bank of America is claiming was taken by these ex-employees was password protected. However, the former employees had boldly stated that they were in fact taking the data from the databases that included Bank of America’s client names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mails.

According to Bank of America, the ex-employees left a resignation letter to the company saying that they were allowed to take the database information based on a protocol agreed upon by some banks. However, Bank of America stated that they did not sign up for such protocol for them to take that information.

These four former employees of Bank of America are now working at Dynasty Financial Partners, which is a wealth management and financial technology firm that is located in New York. Dynasty is one of the defendants in the lawsuit, and the employees at Dynasty and Dynasty are denying the accusations that are being filed against them concerning this stolen data from Bank of America.

As stated in Network World, “Bank of America said in its lawsuit that the databases provide “complete, comprehensive information” on clients and potential clients’ financial profile and investment preferences. The judge in the case has temporarily barred Dynasty and the four individuals from using or sharing the database to solicit new clients, according to a Bloomberg report. But it did not bar the individuals from advising their existing clients.”

Bank of America has not yet commented on the lawsuit. A spokesperson for Dynasty Financial Partners has said that their team has been following the protocol for the case. As stated in Network World, “We are pleased that the judge denied Bank of America’s request to prevent Dynasty from accepting account transfers from clients who want to continue to work” with the team, the spokesperson added.”

Hearings for the lawsuit are currently adjourned until January 2011.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Claims Ex-employees Copied Confidential Information was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Earlier this week, ArmyTimes reported that they are “considering making a smartphone a standard piece of equipment in a soldier’s bag.” Based on this proposal, the Army will even pay the soldier’s monthly phone bill to keep the soldier connected at all times.

Thanks to the Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications program that is currently in place, army issued phones are already being used by soldiers. The next big step that is reportedly in testing already is to send soldiers geared with smartphones into war zones.

The interest in new technologies going into the war zones isn’t limited to smartphones either. According to Mike McCarthy, the director of the mission command complex of Future Force Integration Directorate claims that the Army is also looking for ways to implement Apple’s iPad, e-readers, and possibly even mini projectors. This new technology aims at making it easier for the soldiers to access real time data and updates while on the go, even when in war zones.

As stated in Apple Insider, “At war, smart phones would let soldiers view real-time intelligence and video from unmanned systems overhead, and track friends and enemies on a dynamic map…” the report reads. “But the Army must first work through the complex task of securing the data and the network before it sanctions smartphones on the battlefield.”

The plan is called “far from definitive” and will fit the commercial smartphones such as the iPhone into special antenna sleeves that will allow them to link to the Army’s network from ground and airborne nodes. Reportedly, the program has support from the highest ranking officials, including Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli.

As reported in Apple Insider, “Army officials visited Apple’s campus in Cupertino, Calif., earlier this year to discuss the company’s forthcoming products. The organization has shown interest for some time in embracing Apple’s products, with officials in May noting that the ‘it just works’ philosophy of the company caught the Army’s eye.”

Apple products have routinely been used by the Army. In 2008, the military revealed that they have used custom iPods for “on the spot translating in Iraq.” The Army also have used Macs for their IT infrastructure to prevent hacking attempts, and last year they added Apple’s hardware for video surveillance installations.

All Soldiers May Soon Have an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone or Android Phone was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Wells Fargo wants to help their customers stay on track financially, even during the holiday season. To help their customers do this, they have a new tool that is available for their customers to set their own monthly target goal for how much (or how little) they withdraw from ATMs.

Wells Fargo customers that want to activate this new service can do so easily the next time they use one of the Wells Fargo ATMs. When a customer swipes their debit card, they will see a yellow icon that will ask if they want to sign up for their “Cash Tracker.” From there, customers are able to set a target limit on the amount of money that they withdraw from ATMs each month. Wells Fargo helps their customers set an appropriate limit by showing them how much they have withdrawn from the ATM on the previous month as well as their average monthly amount of withdrawals over the last year.

After the Cash Tracker is activated, the customer will see the new Cash Tracker button on the menu screen when they use a Wells Fargo ATM. Pushing on this button, the customer can see how much they have withdrawn that month and how much they have left to withdraw that is based on their set limit. From this screen, users can also see their withdrawal history, and also change their target limit to withdraw each month.

The Cash Tracker program only works with the Wells Fargo ATMs, so transactions that the customer uses that are not part of the Wells Fargo ATMs, won’t show up as part of the customer’s withdrawal history. It also doesn’t track spending that is made with a debit card, it only tracks the amount of cash withdrawals. As of right now, the Cash Tracker also only can be viewed while using a Wells Fargo ATM machine.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Allows Customers to Track Spending from their ATMs was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

He told CNBC that the company still needed more reforms and more work was needed to restructure Citi Holdings. Citigroup is still selling assets and restructuring their global operations. The US Federal government is still settling its $45 billion loan with Citigroup. Citigroup still has to restore its reputation gained as a result of the financial crisis.

Vikram Pandit appears to be leading Citigroup’s metamorphosis successfully. He has changed since being criticized of being out of touch with the way Citigroup needed to be restructured. He was supported by the federal Government not wishing the demise of Citigroup.

“While we think the markets are increasingly recognizing who we are, we’ve got some ways to go,” Pandit has said. He wants Citigroup to be seen and appreciated as a successful business and believes in an economic recovery. Citigroup is still influenced by the direction the global economy takes as well as the level of unemployment and the housing situation in the US.

“The housing market usually takes a little bit longer and that is not only today’s phenomena, that’s been true whenever there have been housing cycle. The key, key indicator for us is to watch how businesses do, how they grow, how they invest, and that is going to create jobs,” he said.

Citigroup shares have taken a battering over the past ten years. So much so that today they are worth a tenth as much as they were worth at their peak. However Citigroup shares have gained in value over the past year (2010). The stock has gained around 31% in value and reflects Citi’s improved position particularly amongst its competitors.

On a hopeful note Vikram Pandit said, “We’ve had to go through some trying times to get there,” “Now that we’re here I feel very good about how we’re positioned.”

Citigroup still has a lot of asset reduction to bring about. As a result the earnings in 2011 and 2012 are likely to be less than predicted. Only time will tell whether the new Citigroup restructure is successful.

No Rewards for Citigroup (NYSE: C) Investors was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Do credit cards with no limits sound too good to be true? Yes? Well, that’s because they are. When many people hear about No Preset Spending Limit (NPSL) credit cards, they think that these products provide unlimited spending capabilities. After all, the thinking goes, they’re for people with excellent credit and they must have some unique benefit. Besides, “No Preset Spending Limit” sounds an awful lot like there’s no spending limit. This is not the case, however, because a false sense of spending power, the potential for your card to be declined at any time and a possibly-falling credit score are the only unique things NPSL cards bring to the table. Oh, and you are most likely using an NPSL card without knowing it because Visa Signature credit cards, World MasterCard credit cards and American Express charge cards—three of the most popular choices for people with excellent credit—are all NPSL cards.

These cards are broken into two basic types: charge cards—like those from American Express—and credit/charge card hybrids—such as those offered by Visa and MasterCard. NPSL charge cards allow users to spend up to an undisclosed amount, provided they pay back any expenditure in full at the end of each month. NPSL hybrid cards have clear revolving credit limits which users are encouraged to surpass—by how much is again unknown—as long as they pay the overlimit amount in full at the end of the month. Thus, NPSL card users don’t know how much available credit they truly have at any one time and run the risk of having their cards declined unexpectedly.

NPSL cards also cause problems for your credit score as a result of the way they are reported to the major credit bureaus. According to the No Preset Spending Limit Credit Card Study conducted by CardHub.com, even though NPSL cards have actual limits on their spending, these true upper bounds of purchasing power are not reported to the credit bureaus. Instead, proxy limits are passed along because credit card companies want to maintain the myth that their NPSL cards provide unlimited spending. This might not be important if your credit cards’ limits were not relevant to your credit score. However, FICO—the largest credit scoring agency in the United States—uses credit limits to determine the balance-to-available credit ratio known as credit utilization that serves as an important aspect of their credit scoring calculations.

Each proxy limit affects credit utilization in a different way, and according to the study, there is no uniformity in how credit card companies report these faux limits. Similarly, three of the top ten card issuers in the United States—HSBC, U.S. Bank and Chase—refuse to be transparent about their specific reporting methods. As a result, an NPSL credit card can affect your credit score in unpredictable, difficult-to-manage ways, ranging from your card’s available credit being completely ignored by FICO to your FICO score taking a hit.

In light of this, consumers must exercise extreme care in NPSL card use. This starts with simply knowing which credit cards are NPSL cards—a self-awareness that many consumers lack. After this determination is made, you must determine whether your card can be used in a way that will allow you to maintain a low credit utilization ratio. If this cannot be achieved, use of an NPSL card is a risk. Ultimately, the best way to approach NPSL cards is just to avoid them. Think about it, the only supposed benefit of these cards is that they allow users to spend up to a secret limit, and their drawbacks are many. Does this sound like a product befitting your excellent credit status?

Have Excellent Credit? Your Credit Card May be a Threat to Your Credit Score was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The purchase of 85.6% share ($3.06 billion) in Guangdong Development Bank in 2006 was one of the ways Citigroup grew its Asian ventures. Asian economies, according to Citicorp Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, have recovered quicker than most from the financial crisis.

The co-head of Citigroup’s China investment banking team, Eugene Qian, at a recent news briefing in Beijing said, “Citigroup’s strong capital base and the ability to maintain capital costs at low levels will help us achieve that goal,” Qian also said, “We are confident that China’s economy will remain stable next year and the global capital market (environment) will be better.”

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are also providing financial underwriting and advising to Chinese companies and Citigroup intends to rival their success. According to Eugene Qian the investment opportunities available in China are big enough so out right competition between investment banks will not be necessary.

A recent agreement signed by Citigroup was with Zhongyuan Securities. The aim is to set up a joint venture that will enable the partnership to set up a securities joint venture via the A-share market. Citigroup did not comment on this venture but said they were still looking to establish more partnerships with local Chinese securities companies.

As well as expanding their investment banking business in China Citigroup is also keen to develop its commercial banking arm. It has 31 commercial branches in China at present and plans to treble this to over 100 in the next few years. This expansion will also involve employing more Chinese nationals. It is predicted that around 12 000 new Chinese employees could be employed in the near future.

The US market is still a problem for Citigroup and as a result Asia is seen as an important revenue source. The Asia-Pacific region contributed $3.5 billion of Citigroup’s $9.3 billion profit in the nine months of 2010. Stepen Bird, Citigroup’s co-chief executive officer for the Asia-Pacific region said, “We are very excited about China. For us, this is still the beginning of the China story.”

Citigroup (NYSE: C) Plans China Expansion was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Alicia Moore, head of Wells Fargo ATM Banking said, “Budgeting and money management are top of mind for customers today. We wanted to create a tool that would help our customers by tracking their ATM withdrawals for better budgeting,” She further commented, “Wells Fargo is committed to helping our customers succeed financially and we’re excited to offer this newest personal financial management tool.”

Customers using Cash Tracker, also receive notice of the amount withdrawn the previous month as well as their monthly average for twelve months. When established, a Cash Tracker button will be added each customer’s personalized Main Menu screen so the transactions can be seen visually. Wells Fargo customers will also be able to access the service via a ‘more choices’ button that leads to the “Set ATM Cash Tracker” button.

At present Cash Tracker is only available for Wells Fargo Customers and only accessed at Wells Fargo ATMs. ‘You Know Me’ ATMs, at Wells Fargo, also record their customer’s most used transactions to make individual banking faster and more convenient. Wachovia customers will have access to Cash Tracker once their bank is converted as a Wells Fargo outlet. It is planned to convert Wachovia outlets to Wells Fargo outlets throughout 1011.

Other management tools Wells Fargo offers its customers include a budget watch tool, savings plan tool, credit card management education plus the ‘Hands on Banking’ free education online. ‘Hands on Banking’ education online is for all ages and its focus is on teaching the basics of responsible money management.

Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO John Stumpf says Wells Fargo has been successful for 158 years. “I believe there are two important reasons. First and foremost, our people. We have the most committed, talented, experienced, innovative and caring people in our industry. The second reason is that for 15 years we’ve demonstrated that our business model — diversified financial services, not just banking — and earning all our customers’ business does work.”

ATM Cash Tracker Service for Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Customers was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

You may or may not know what the Durbin Amendment is, but you will soon become familiar with its effects. This law—passed in October—confers upon the Federal Reserve the power to regulate the fees banks charge merchants when debit cards are used in stores. In addition, this legislation provides merchants the freedom to offer discounts to consumers who pay in cash because it costs less to process than other payment types, such as credit cards or checks. Together these changes are designed to provide a measure of financial relief to merchants, leading, in theory, to lower prices for consumers.

However, these intended effects will not be realized for long, if at all, because the combination of bank reaction and loopholes within the law will lead to a market restructuring that will leave merchants with an unchanged expense structure.

According to a CardHub.com study, the Fed will lower debit card interchange fees 20-50 percent, causing banks to lose between $3.6 billion and $9.1 billion in revenue. Such a significant potential loss will most certainly lead to reactive measures, which will likely come in the form of increased fees for checking accounts and less attractive debit card rewards. Less attractive debit options will then, in turn, lead to greater consumer dependence on credit cards, which have higher interchange fees and are unregulated by the Durbin Amendment.

Banks will position prepaid cards—which have the same capabilities as debit cards, minus the ability to write paper checks—as replacements for checking accounts and debit cards. Because prepaid cards are also unregulated by the Durbin Amendment, they have more profit potential than debit cards and will be offered at lower prices. Thus, a lot of consumers, especially younger ones, are likely to be amenable to making the switch.
Those banks with less than $10 billion in assets are also exempt from the new law and as a result will assume a greater share of the depressed debit card market thanks to their ability to offer more competitive options than their larger counterparts.

Therefore, both banks and consumers will shift toward the use of those payment types left out of the Durbin Amendment’s scope, thereby decreasing their financial burden and erasing any positive implications the legislation might have had for merchants. The legacy of the law will thus be its restructuring of the credit card and checking account markets rather than any consumer savings.

However, this did not have to be the case. Merchants and consumers would have both benefitted had a truly competitive payment landscape been instituted. If merchants possessed the ability to both provide discounts and assess surcharges depending on payment type and payment network alike, then methods of payment would become cheaper on a whole. Under such a system a merchant could, for example, offer a discount for using an American Express debit card, apply a surcharge for using a MasterCard credit card and make no price adjustment when a Visa credit card is used. Such a scenario would have led to true benefit for merchants and consumers alike.

Fed Interchange Fee Regulation Poised to Restructure Credit and Debit Card Markets was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Citigroup has a lot to do to regain its position in the market place. A banker from another group commented about his view of Citigroup. He said, “It wasn’t so long ago that we were all afraid of Citigroup. They were going to be the model of the future.”

Citigroup lost many of its senior investment bankers in Europe and has not hired any replacements. Its reputation and standing in Europe has taken a huge battering. However, there are now two new managers of Citigroup’s Europe investment banking business.

James Bardrick and Manuel Falco have equal standing and plan to announce Citi’s new European strategy. It is expected they will announce the type of clients and market group they will focus upon.

Many in the banking area, including those in foreign currency trading, believe it is unwise to underestimate Citigroup and point to the revenue that has been earned in recent quarters. Revenue for the first half of 2010 was estimated at $4.28 billion. As impressive as this is, Citigroup still has challenges ahead.

In 2011 Citigroup is aiming to open a network of bank branches in a few European cities. Their target market will be their affluent citizens. The cities are in France, Britain and Germany and Poland, according to the Financial Times.

The Financial Times quoted an unnamed person, familiar with Citicorp’s new marketing strategies, who said, “Further down the road, we will open up in key cities in Western Europe. 2011 is a potential turning point.”

There was no comment from anyone at Citigroup about this even though it resonated with Citigroup’s new marketing plan of focusing on around 100 of the world’s cities. This includes 10 to 15 Western European cities.

“We have made a number of strategic changes to our coverage model to increase the focus on our core clients, which has created a number of exciting new opportunities for our bankers and also may have resulted in some people choosing to pursue their careers elsewhere. Several of the departures were mutual, and in some cases, welcome. We have also made a number of important new senior hires, and plan to announce more over the next few weeks,” said a Citigroup spokesperson.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) Plans to Target Europe’s Wealthy Citizens was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Cara Heiden, co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage said, “We have contended from the beginning that the challenges Baltimore faces cannot be attributed to the small number of loans Wells Fargo foreclosed in the city. Even the city has acknowledged that long-standing crime, unemployment and socioeconomic issues have contributed to the city’s problems. We remain committed to working with city and state leaders to help revitalize Baltimore by addressing issues related to abandoned properties. We also will continue to do our part to lessen the impact of foreclosures on communities in Baltimore and across the nation by working with our customers to reach affordable home payments wherever possible.”

When the lawsuit was dismissed in January 2006 for the first time, the City of Baltimore was given by the opportunity to file an amended narrower file addressing the economic impacts associated with the situation. The city filed again, despite the Judge not being sympathetic towards their position.

In September 2010, US District Judge J. Frederick Motz of Maryland, refuted the state’s lawsuit stating there was no connection between the financial problems of Baltimore and Wells Fargo’s mortgage distribution.

The Federal Court Judge J. Frederick Motz commented, “When considered against the background of other factors leading to the deterioration of the inner city, such as extensive unemployment, lack of educational opportunity and choice, irresponsible parenting, disrespect for the law, widespread drug use and violence,” Wells Fargo’s role was not proven.

“From the beginning, we have consistently maintained that Baltimore’s economic problems could not be attributed to the small numbers of foreclosures Wells Fargo has done in Baltimore,” said Cara Heiden, co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, in a statement she made after the ruling,

On The City of Baltimore’s behalf, their lawyer John P Relman said, “We are not saying that Wells is responsible for a catastrophe in Baltimore and all the deterioration of the neighborhoods. We are simply saying that they are engaged in illegal conduct.”

City of Baltimore Loses Lawsuit against Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Again was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The case centers on Wells Fargo’s backroom deal to wrest the failing bank from Citigroup after an initial deal had been put on the table to buy Wachovia. The bank had been ready to fail due to toxic real estate loans when it entered the U.S. government-backed deal with Citigroup. As a consequence, Citigroup turned around and sued Wells Fargo, an act which led to the current settlement.

According to the details of the lawsuit filed by Citigroup in New York Supreme Court, the company accused the executives at Wells Fargo and Wachovia respectively of a breach of contract. They were pursuing reparations totally $60 billion for damages, not relating to online currency trading.

All of this activity also served to highlight Citigroup’s instabilities in the wake of financial crisis. In fact, the company was in a vulnerable position at that time. Several weeks following the establishment of the original deal with Wachovia, Citigroup found itself in deep trouble. A number of bad investments accumulated and dealt a serious blow to the company.

During a time when so many businesses and major corporations were taking government bailout money, Citigroup was among the takers. In total, the company received $45 billion from the United States government. In the last couple of years, the government has gradually been cutting back the percentage of its stake in the big bank. At present, it still retains a 12 percent ownership in Citigroup.

Concerning the matte of the $100 million settlement, it should be noted that this amount represents only a tiny fraction of the total earnings and assets that is owned by the San Francisco-based Wells Fargo. Known as one of the largest banks in the United States, Wells Fargo earned a staggering $3.15 billion in the third quarter of 2010. As of September 30, the company showed $16 billion in cash on its balance sheet.

Despite the controversy surrounding the settlement the company is still making a strong market showing. As of Friday, November 26, 2010, Wells Fargo’s shares had increased by 2 cents for a $27.53 per share total in afternoon trading.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Will Pay Citigroup $100M In Lawsuit Concerning Wachovia was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

As stated on Market Watch, “During the holiday season, especially, people need to know what to look out for and how to properly protect themselves,” said Lisa H. Robinson, senior vice president, Head of Risk Management, Wells Fargo Internet Services Group. “By taking simple precautions, shoppers can reap significant benefits when it comes to fraud prevention.”

Before shopping online, in a store, or on a mobile device, make sure to review the following tips from Wells Fargo:

• Monitor your purchase activity and remember to review your statements regularly, especially when doing extra shopping, such as for the holidays.
• Enroll in mobile banking so you will be able to view your account on the go.
• Sign up for transaction alerts for your checking account, debit card, and credit card. That way you’ll know right away if it is being used for something you did not permit.
• Don’t “over-share” personal information on social networks. Avoid sharing your full birthday, place of birth, children’s names, name of schools attended, pet’s names, etc. Never share your mother’s maiden name, social security number, phone number, address, or the username and password for accounts (including e-mail). This information could be collected and then used for fraudulent use to attempt illegal activity in your name.
• Be careful of holiday specials and offers that are sent to you that request your personal information. If you are in doubt if it is real, call the number from the main website (not something included in the e-mail) and ask them about it.
• Update your computers with anti-virus and anti-malware updates. Don’t download or install suspicious attachments or plug-ins.
• When shopping online, be sure that the store’s website address for the purchase starts with “https.” The “s” makes sure that the information you send will be passed in a secure manner.
• Go paperless for your statements. Some fraudulent activity happens due to criminals stealing your statements right from your mailbox.
• Make sure that you are covered in case someone steals your account information. Contact your banks and credit cards if you don’t know their policy on this matter. Wells Fargo guarantees that their retail customers are covered for 100 percent if their account information is stolen and fraudulent charges appear on their account.
• Know what you’re carrying in your purse and/or wallet. If in the event it is stolen, you need to know what was stolen and who to call. Photocopy your personal and financial information that could be stolen, and keep it in a safe place at home.

As stated in Market Watch, “We encourage our customers to take advantage of Wells Fargo’s tools and services, such as alerts, mobile banking, and online banking, to monitor their accounts the way they want,” said Robinson. “No matter how people choose to shop, keep these tips in mind to help safeguard your information.”

Fraud Prevention Tips for the Holiday Season From Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Poor real estate loans had caused Wachovia to agree to Citicorp purchasing it. The purchase was supported by the U.S. Government. The Citigroup purchase was undermined by Wells Fargo, who offered Wachovia a larger settlement. Wachovia settled on the Wells Fargo deal.

The merger between Wells Fargo and Wachovia meant the size of Wells Fargo has doubled. It is now the largest retail banking network in the U.S.

Citigroup decided to sue Wells Fargo accusing them and Wachovia for breach of contract. Citigroup claimed $60 billion damages. The case was settled in New York and Citigroup received a $100 million settlement. This settlement also wiped out the multiple lawsuits Citigroup had brought against Wells Fargo and Wachovia. All banks said this settled the matter.

Anton Schutz, president of Menton Capital Advisors in Rochester, New York which had investments in both banks said, “This could have dragged on forever, and sometimes I think you’re better just settling and moving on,”

“If Citigroup had gotten Wachovia, the financial returns would have been significant. But it might have made it harder for Citi to do some of the things they’re doing now, like getting leaner.”

Losing the Wachovia deal showed Citigroup’s lack of power over the situation. Citigroup’s financial vulnerability, from poor investments, came to light in the weeks following the collapsed deal with Wachovia.

The financial vulnerability of Citigroup was such that it needed funds from the U.S. Government to save it from insolvency. The bailout amounted to $45 billion. The U.S. government in November 2010 still owns 12% of Citigroup.

The payout to Citigroup by Wells Fargo, was not a huge one, for Wells Fargo one of the largest banks in the U.S. Wells Fargo at the end of September 2010 had reported earnings in that quarter of $3.15 billion. Its shares were valued at around $27.53.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Settle Dispute over Wachovia was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Throughout the sweepstakes period, personal and business customers from Wells Fargo and Wachovia who sign up for online banking, sign into an online banking session, and/or switch to online delivery of their statement, will be automatically entered into the sweepstakes for a chance to win the grand prize of $50,000. There will also be fifty customers that win $1,000 each.

As stated in Market Watch, “One of Wells Fargo’s strategic initiatives is to allow customers to transact anytime, anywhere in order to meet their needs. Through online banking, our customers can view their current available account balances, pay bills, and transfer funds between most accounts,” said Stephanie Smith, executive vice president, Wells Fargo Internet Services Group. “Online statements provide the added benefits of organization and convenience, fraud prevention, reduced paper use, and functioning as paper statements for record-keeping and tax purposes.”

Customers that decide to be environmentally friendly and switch to the online banking to view their statements online only, can access their Wells Fargo statements from a secure online banking session anytime they want. These online statements are able to provide a clear and concise summary of their recent account activity so that customers are able to pinpoint the information they are seeking right away.

The online only statements are available for checking accounts, savings accounts, mortgages, credit cards, home equity lines of credit and loans, student loans, and personal loans. Wells Fargo and Wachovia business customers are also able to access online only statements for checking, savings, credit card, and their business line of credit. Wells Fargo also sends out an e-mail to the online only statement customers by e-mail when a new statement is ready.

Using an online only statement is helpful to reduce potential mail fraud and identity theft. As reported in Market Watch, “According to the Javelin Strategy & Research 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report, some thieves still get their information the old-fashioned way: by stealing bank or credit card statements from the mailbox.”

No purchase or payment is necessary to enter the sweepstakes to win the Online Banking and Online Statements sweepstakes. For more information on the sweepstakes visit: www.wellsfargo.com/fallsweeps and www.wachovia.com/fallsweeps from 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) on 10/1/10 to 11:59 p.m. PT on 12/15/10 (“Promo Period”). The drawing for the 2010 sweepstakes will be held on or about February 1, 2011 to award 51 customers. For the Official Rules go to: https://www.wellsfargo.com/wfonline/statements_fallsweep/rules.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Giving Customers a Chance to Win $50,000 was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Executive vice president of Wells Fargo Internet Services Group, Stephanie Smith said, “One of Wells Fargo’s strategic initiatives is to allow customers to transact anytime, anywhere in order to meet their needs. Through online banking, our customers can view their current available account balances, pay bills, and transfer funds between most accounts. Online statements provide the added benefits of organization and convenience, fraud prevention, reduced paper use, and functioning as paper statements for record-keeping, forex and tax purposes.”

The opportunity to win one of the cash prizes is available until December 15^th 2010.

The benefit of receiving online statements is they are easy to read and understand and are brief summaries of what activity has been undertaken in relationship to the account. The account holder is able to scan for any information they need. They can also order online statements for savings accounts, checking accounts, mortgage information, credit card purchases and payments, home equity lines of credit and loans, personal loans and student loans.

The bank customers who accept paperless statements can access them securely and safely when they sign in for an online banking session. An email is sent to all online customers when their statements are ready. Online statements can also be helpful in preventing mail and identity fraud.

It is still possible for thieves to get people’s personal and banking information from their letter boxes. This has been verified by the Javelin Strategy and Research 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report. Wells Fargo free online banking and online statements are available 24/7 unlike the post.

Wells Fargo believes in the necessity to protect the environment and paperless statements can help to do this. Mary Wenzel, director of Wells Fargo Environmental Affairs said, “We already reduced our greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by seven percent in 2009. We’re on our way to achieving the GHG reduction goal of 20 percent below 2008 levels by 2018 by focusing on energy efficiency, optimizing space, and online and mobile banking services.”

There is no purchasing necessary to enter the sweepstakes. The websites to visit for the official rules are: www.wellsfargo.com/fallsweeps and www.wachovia.com/fallsweeps. The prizes will be awarded in early February.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and Wachovia Announce Online Banking and Statements Sweepstakes was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO said, “We asked ourselves what would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up? It’s one of the most amazing things we’ve ever created: It is our new MacBook Air, and we think it’s the future of notebooks.”

The new MacBook Airs, say some Mac enthusiasts, are superior to the popular MacBook Pro. The speed of the MacBook Air is impressive. They are ready to use in less than 15 seconds after turning on. The i7 MacBook Pro takes twice as long. MacBook Air shuts down in around 3 seconds. The overall speed of loading applications and file transfers are equally impressive.

The Baseline 13 inch MacBook Air has 1.86GhzIntel Core 2 Duo processor and RAM is 2GB. It has a flash storage hard drive of 128GB. Testing has shown the MacBook Air to outperform the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the faster Core 2 Duo processor and twice the RAM. The outstanding performance of the new MacBook Air is due to the flash storage hard drive. The heat issues have been dealt with. The 11 inch MacBook Air is also receiving outstanding reviews. The 13 inch MacBook Air is retailing at around $1299 and the 11 inch around $999.

An issue has appeared however, regarding the storage space. It is possible that the 128 GB hard drive is too small when 256GB seems to be the benchmark due to the variety of media downloaded. One enthusiast, M.G Siegler in a review wrote: ‘Here’s how I see it: if storage didn’t matter, I think this 13-inch MacBook Air would almost immediately be Apple’s best-selling Mac. It’s that good.”

It seems Apple’s Cloud strategy is planned to compensate for this. The Cloud strategy consists of providing streaming from their servers to Apple products, enabling Mac users to stream content from their computer to other

Apple devices they own and wireless syncing content to devices. It is probable that MacBook Air will become a content viewer like the iPad.

It appears that MacBook Air has the same appeal to the market as iPhones and iPads. It also has an affordable price tag.

New Release of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) MacBook Air a Success was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan find it difficult to gain employment after returning from the war zones. Their unemployment statistics of 9.6% are higher than the US average.

Veterans in the Microsoft program will receive support over two years. This includes technology skills training, job placement, career counselling, transportation and housing if necessary.

Microsoft’s senior director of Community affairs, Akhtar Badsha commented, “Veterans may not necessarily have a specific qualification such as a college diploma, but after having spent time in the field they are incredibly accomplished individuals and leaders. With the experience of having veterans in the company at different levels, we clearly know they are a tremendous asset to anyone that can employ them.”

Vin Perrone, CEO of Worcester, Massachusetts-based Veterans, Inc. one of the six organizations receiving a grant said,

“It’s been a struggle for us to try to find ways to get people retrained and open up new doors for employment. With the Microsoft grant, we’re not only going to be able to support the veterans we already have been helping, but it allows us to do something we’ve been desperate to do for a while, which is to take guardsmen and reservists still on active duty or those who have just returned and get them into a program along with their spouses. We’ll actually be able to create a family support structure in the employment training area, and this is wonderful for our veterans; also for the reservists and the guardsmen.”

The lead advocacy specialist with Microsoft’s Customer and Partner Advocacy Group, Mi Hausvaster, was a marine for eight years. “It’s great to see such a big organization be such an active participant in the military community and want to reach out to military members about careers. It’s not just saying, ‘here are additional resources for veterans already at Microsoft. They’re actually reaching out to people currently serving and trying to get them interested in Microsoft, which is cool,” she said.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)Supporting Veterans and Families was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Wells Fargo’s, ‘Leading the Way Home Priority Markets Program’ have a number of innovations. Amongst them are providing workshops for residents in areas with many mortgages in default, an education program that teaches credit management, mortgage strategies and the responsibility involved in repaying loans. Company representatives are also working with nonprofit organizations and supplying grants for assistant programs. Assessing housing in many areas, is also undertaken, to see what can be done to salvage many situations.

The co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Cara Heiden, said, “From the beginning of the housing crisis, we have joined with numerous communities and organizations to help preserve and advance homeownership, assist struggling homeowners, and help stabilize communities hard hit by foreclosures. From January 2009 through August 2010, Wells Fargo has helped more than 2.3 million households with mortgage payment relief through its refinancing and modification programs.”

“Transfer of foreclosed properties for redevelopment—Wells Fargo was the first mortgage servicer to partner with the National Community Stabilization Trust (NCST) to assist local governments and nonprofits in acquiring foreclosed properties for redevelopment. Wells Fargo’s Housing Foundation, in partnership with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, also donates foreclosed properties, or offers such properties at a reduced price, for redevelopment and resale. In addition to properties transferred through NCST, Wells Fargo has discounted or donated more than 2,000 properties to nonprofit organizations and government entities in 2009 and 2010.”

Wells Fargo has also donated to Habitat for Humanity International. A grant of $8 million was donated early in 2010 for their Neighborhood Revitalization program. Cara Heiden stressed, “From the beginning of the housing crisis, we have joined with numerous communities and organizations to help preserve and advance homeownership, assist struggling homeowners, and help stabilize communities hard hit by foreclosures. From January 2009 through August 2010, Wells Fargo has helped more than 2.3 million households with mortgage payment relief through its refinancing and modification programs.”

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Helps People Keep a Roof over Their Head was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The current share price will still mean a profit for the government. It is estimated at around $8 billion. This is good news for the taxpayer, as many criticized the government for rescuing Citigroup during the recent financial crisis. It is believed by some analysts, that the large government sale is factored into the current share price.

In a statement, The Treasury Department said investment bank Morgan Stanley “will have discretionary authority to sell 1.5 billion shares of Citigroup common stock under certain parameters.”

Apparently Citigroup stock is one of the most active listings on the NYSE. It is also believed, by some analysts, that the huge supply of Citicorp shares on the market will not be advantageous for investors. Institutional investors are looking at investing in Citigroup. This will support the Treasury sale and prevent harm to current shareholders. Institutions buying large blocks of Citicorp shares will give the message that the restructure is approved.

Warnings about buying Citigroup shares centre on the need for the Group to complete its turnaround plan, in order to be a viable company. Citigroup has no bidders as yet for its non-core group assets in Citigroup Holdings. Some investors are counting on the areas that have been restructured to show profit.

Citigroup continues to find ways to reduce its debt. It is hoped the sale of Primerica Inc. will earn $234 million through the sale of 18 million shares at $12 to $14 a share.

An economic recovery is the good news Citigroup needs. An improving economy would strengthen the current share value. A recovering economy would also ensure that the Citigroup share price increases in value and will also attract retail investors.

Analysts are looking with interest at the next Citigroup earnings report and believe it will be a significant one.

Citigroup received $45 billion from the Federal Government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2008.

Treasury Plans to Sell Citigroup (NYSE: C) Shares October 2010 was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Rule 1 – Spend Less Money Than What You Are Making

This rule should be common sense to most people but in the days of easy credit and low interest rates, many people became addicted to spending above their means.  If you continuously spend less money than you are bringing home in your paycheck, you will have less of a need to put items on credit, where you will be charged high interest rates, and will be able to handle financial emergencies as they come along.  Spending less than you earn each month should be the goal of every person that is interested in getting out of debt.

Rule 2 – Avoid High Interest Debt

High interest debt is one of the biggest ways to waste tons of money for no gain.  Interest payments are just payments for the ability to borrow money from a creditor and provide nothing to the person that is paying the interest payments.  Most high interest debt is credit card debt, where the creditor can charge 20% or more in interest, while short term bank loans generally have a much lower interest rate.  In order to save more of your money from going from your pocket into the coffers of a large banking institution to pay their executive’s multi-million dollar salaries, stay away from high interest debt at all costs. If you findyourself in too much high interest debt, you might be forced into a Chapter 13 bankruptcy (or an IVA if you’re in Britain).

Rule 3 – Protect Your Possessions

A large expense for many people is replacing lost or damaged items that they believe they need for a comfortable life.  If you do not take care of your possessions, you will find that they need to be replaced more often, which means you will need to spend more money to keep your current lifestyle.  Simple tasks, like making sure you get your vehicle’s oil changes done on time or turning off the television when you leave the room for long periods of time, will save you a great deal of money in repairs and replacement costs.

Rule 4 – Do What You Can For Yourself

Paying someone to do simple tasks will cost you much more than you would have spent doing the same task yourself.  From making coffee to fixing lunch to making minor repairs to the home, you will spend two or three times as much asking someone else to accomplish the task than it would take in money, time, and effort to do it yourself.  Although some larger tasks that require specialized tools and expert knowledge would be better left to the professionals, there are many things that you can learn how to do on your own that could save you hundreds of dollars each year.

Four Rules to Get and Stay out of Debt was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The two suits were filed against Washington Mutual, which was purchased by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), and Chase Home Finance. The suits were filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and in state court in California. The bank said that the suits allege “common law fraud and misrepresentation, as well as violations of state consumer fraud statutes.”

The New York-based bank said that it is also facing a lawsuit from a number of firms including Charles Schwab and Cambridge Place Investment Managemetn relating to mortgage backed securities.

Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) all announced that they could see significant legal costs as a result of lawsuits over foreclosures.

Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) said that it is being sued by investors for more who purchased more than $375 million in mortgage backed securities and Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) said that it’s been sued for its part in the underwriting process of residential mortgage backed securities. Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) said that multiple class action lawsuits have been filed against it and other firms.

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company. The Company provides retail, commercial and corporate banking services through banking stores located in 39 states and the District of Columbia. It provides other financial services, through subsidiaries engaged in various businesses, principally wholesale banking, mortgage banking, consumer finance, equipment leasing, agricultural finance, commercial finance, securities brokerage and investment banking, insurance agency and brokerage services, computer and data processing services, trust services, investment advisory services, mortgage-backed securities servicing and venture capital investment. The Company operates in three segments: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement. As of December 31, 2009, the Company provided banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance from more than 10,000 stores under various types of ownership and leasehold agreements.

Shares of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) traded down 3.13% during mid-day trading on Tuesday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) Faces Foreclosure Fraud Class Action Lawsuit was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The New York-based bank disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday that it is about $1.1 billion short in after-tax equity gains of the $3 billion that it had agreed to raise as a condition of buying back stock owned that the Federal Reserve is holding from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The bank had finished paying back the government its funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2009, wiring $45 billion to the U.S. Treasury Department. In order for Bank of America to be allowed to pay back its loans, the federal government setup a number of new capital rules. Bank of America is hoping to sell assets to raise capital equities, but if it does not close the gap, it could be forced to pay some of its year-end bonuses to employees in the form of stock instead of cash.

The current shortfall doesn’t include a planned sale of common stock in BlackRock, which Bnak of America announced last week. At the current price, the sale could bring as much as $7 billion before taxes. Analysts predict that the sale could bring somewhere in the range of $300 million to $600 million in new equity after taxes, but would still leave a potential shortfall of at least $500 million.

Bank of America Spokesperson Jerry Dubrowski said that his company is “actively pursuing the sale of non-core assets” and “working hard to complete transactions by the end of the year.” He noted that the company had other options in addition to paying bonuses in stock instead of cash and that the bank had not made a final decision about how it would make up for the short-fall.

Bank of America Corporation is a bank holding company, and a financial holding company. The Company is a financial institution, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses, large corporations and governments with a range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. Through its banking subsidiaries (the Banks) and various nonbanking subsidiaries throughout the United States and in selected international markets, it provides a range of banking and nonbanking financial services and products through six business segments: Deposits, Global Card Services, Home Loans & Insurance, Global Commercial Banking, Global Banking & Markets, Global Wealth & Investment Management, with the remaining operations recorded in All Other.

Shares of BAC traded up 2.47% during mid-day trading on Monday.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) May Pay Bonuses to Employees in Stock was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Citigroup’s debt funds used borrowed money to invest in municipal bonds and mortgage debt up until the financial crisis. The funds value fell by 77% by March of 2008. The bank had reportedly agreed to buyback shares which would decrease investor losses to 61%.

Recently, three brokers out of California, who worked for then Citigroup-owned Smith Barney, determined that the bank didn’t adequately disclose the funds’ risk and had mismanaged them, said the Journal. The brokers resigned in 2008 in a dispute over the funds. The SEC spoke with the brokers in 2009 and again during the summer of 2010.

Both the SEC and Citigroup declined to comment to the Journal citing an ongoing regulatory probe. Citigroup did deny that it misled investors and told the WSJ that its disclosures were adequate.

Citigroup Inc. (Citigroup) is a global diversified financial services holding company. The Company provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a range of financial products and services. As of December 31, 2009, Citigroup had approximately 200 million customer accounts and did business in more than 140 countries. Citigroup operates through two primary business segments: Citicorp, consisting of its Regional Consumer Banking (RCB) businesses and Institutional Clients Group (ICG), and Citi Holdings, consisting of its Brokerage and Asset Management (BAM), Local Consumer Lending (LCL), and Special Asset Pool (SAP). In April 2010, Barclays PLC acquired Italian credit card business of Citibank International Bank plc. In May 2010, the Company announced the creation of a new Collateral Management Services unit within its Securities and Fund Services business.

Shares of Citgroup traded down 0.78% during mid-day trading on Monday.

SEC Investigating Citigroup (NYSE: C)’s Debt Funds was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW) Corp, Cambridge Place Investment Management, the Federal Home Loan Banks of Chicago and Indianapolis and a number of other investors have brought suits against Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) as early as July alleging that Citigroup had made omissions or other misstatements relating to the mortgage investments that it had sold to investors. The New York-based bank disclosed the suit in a regulatory filing on Friday.

The New York-based bank issued subprime mortgages to borrowers, grouped them into pools and then sold them as securities to investors. When the housing market declined and homeowners attached to the notes quit making payments, no one was really sure what value the bonds had, making the securities illiquid.

Investors claim that Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) misled them about the quality of mortgage which were placed in the bonds. The investors suing Citi want to make Courts buy-back the investments at full price and to assess other damages. The investors said that Citigroup confirmed that the loans had met certain underwriting standards, but former Citigroup employees have come out saying that more than half of the mortgages bought and sold by the bank failed to meet the company’s internal standards.

Citigroup Inc. (Citigroup) is a global diversified financial services holding company. The Company provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a range of financial products and services. As of December 31, 2009, Citigroup had approximately 200 million customer accounts and did business in more than 140 countries. Citigroup operates through two primary business segments: Citicorp, consisting of its Regional Consumer Banking (RCB) businesses and Institutional Clients Group (ICG), and Citi Holdings, consisting of its Brokerage and Asset Management (BAM), Local Consumer Lending (LCL), and Special Asset Pool (SAP). In April 2010, Barclays PLC acquired Italian credit card business of Citibank International Bank plc. In May 2010, the Company announced the creation of a new Collateral Management Services unit within its Securities and Fund Services business.

Shares of Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) traded up 3.70% during mid-day trading on Friday.

Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) Sued by Investors over Toxic Mortgage Bonds was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Wells Fargo became the number one SBA 7(a) lender in the country by issuing $871 million in loans. This number was five percent higher than it was in 2009, when it was at $827 million.

Antonio Zate, head of Well Fargo’s SBA Lending Division in greater Los Angeles, had this comment: “The changes that came about as a result of the recently passed Small Business Jobs Act will help America’s small businesses growth, and we stand ready to do our part by providing the credit to meet their financing needs.”

Zate expressed the desire of Wells Fargo to maximize its status as the top SBA lender in dollars to extend viable financing to as many small businesses as possible, provided they are qualified borrowers. He acknowledged that the success of businesses remains very important to the overall economy. Zate said, “Wells Fargo’s position as No.1 SBA lender gives us an important opportunity to support an economy recovery.”

In another report released by the Community Reinvestment Act, date released for 2009 showed that Wells Fargo also ranked as the top California small business lender in terms of loans below the $100,000 mark and total business lending below $1 million categories.

Wells Fargo & Company, headquartered in San Francisco, has been a national, community-based financial services organization since 1852. It currently holds in the neighborhood of $1.2 trillion in assets. The company operations a diversified umbrella of services include banking, insurance, investments, mortgages, and commercial and consumer finance. It operates using wide variety of channels to deliver quality services both in the United States and internationally. There are more than 278,000 active team members.

Additionally, Wells Fargo was listed at number 19 on a list of Fortune Magazine’s 2009 rankings for America’s largest corporations. It is a dynamic business with a reputation as a leading lender to women and diverse-owned businesses. It makes use of the latest technology to provide customers with online resources, including webcasts and topical videos. The company is ready to offer sound advice to business owners in order to help them succeed financially.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Tops SBA List of Top Lenders With A $59 Million Loan To California Small Businesses was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Like other lenders, Wells Fargo failed to set systems in place that would ensure all paperwork was thoroughly checked. The company joins many others in the industry with paperwork errors that prevent forced sales of mortgaged property going ahead.

Wells Fargo is one of America’s biggest mortgage lenders and the failure to have all paper work checked is a serious anomaly. The company at present is preparing around 55,000 foreclosures in 23 states. It promises to fix the mistakes associated with these foreclosures.

The bank announced that the paperwork errors related to the ‘final step’ of filing. Foreclosure papers included final reviews and notarizations of documents. Plans are for the documents in question to be resubmitted in November 2010.

The mistakes, the company claims, are technical and will not stop the foreclosure process from continuing. In a statement, Wells Fargo says it doesn’t, “believe that any of these instances led to foreclosures which should not have otherwise occurred.”

John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo, claims the bank is “confident that our practices, procedures and documentation” are accurate. No one at Wells Fargo would comment whether the bank had used ‘robo-signers’. Robo-signers signed an enormous number of legal documents without checking for errors.

Wells Fargo now has to now deal with slowing of foreclosures, lawsuits brought by homeowners and legal strategies developed by mortgage investors in the hope of getting their investments back.

David Grais, an attorney representing mortgage investors said, “None of these avenues of litigation is for either the faint of heart or for those with short attention spans.”

It will not be easy for investors to prove that any bank did not act in the best interest of their customers.

Wells Fargo spokeswoman, Terri Schrettenbrunner, who would not discuss the type of errors Wells Fargo was dealing with, said, “We found human errors, and we are fixing those errors,”

Wells Fargo has had two of their employees question their foreclosure procedures. One of whom claimed she signed around 300 to 400 foreclosure documents on a daily basis.

The issue of paper work and legal procedures and how they were handled in hundreds of thousands of situations is being investigated by attorney generals in each of the 50 states.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Foreclosure Paperwork Also Flawed was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

According to Tech Crunch, BOKU President and CEO Mark Britto and co-founder Ron Hirson have met with Apple executives that are in charge of the iPhone multiple times over the past 3 weeks.

BOKU has also allegedly had “high level meetings” with Google’s Director of Engineering Michael Morrissey, who heads Google Mobile Services for Android. BOKU has partnered with the Android developers to offer purchases for their Android apps.

As stated on AppleInsider.com, “Sources have yet to confirm whether Google is interested in an “outright acquisition” of the startup, but with both Apple and Google doing some “serious sniffing,” the result could be a bidding war. The price tag on BOKU, which has brought in a number of “big-name investors,” could reach 9-digits, reportedly costing Apple between $250-450 million, although Tech Crunch was unable to fix an exact price at this stage in the negotiations.”

This possible acquisition is similar to last year when both Apple and Google were interested in ad seller AdMob. Google eventually acquired the company for $750 million just a few weeks after Apple reportedly approached AdMob.

Apple then acquired a smaller mobile ad company called Quattro Wireless for $275 million. It was this company that helped Apple to lay the groundwork for Apple’s interactive iAd program. As stated on AppleInsider.com, “We don’t know much about this advertising thing,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs when he announced iAd in April. “We tried to buy a company called AdMob, and Google came in and snatched them because they didn’t want us to have them. We bought a smaller but still great company called Quattro.”

Apple currently has $51 billion in cash and reserves. Apple can afford to acquire BOKU, even if they end up in a bidding war with Google. As stated on AppleInsider.com, “We strongly believe one or more strategic opportunities will come along we’re in a unique position to take advantage of,” Jobs said during the company’s conference call for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010. “We don’t let the cash burn a hole in the pocket or make stupid acquisitions. We’d like to continue to keep our powder dry because we think there are one or more strategic opportunities in the future.”

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) in Secret Talks With BOKU was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Known as, ‘The Communities at Work Fund’ it is a $200 million fund. Citicorp provides $199 million and the Calvert Foundation and the Opportunity Finance Network provides $1 million.

The fund was established with the aim of sustaining and helping business grow and so contribute to the country’s economic recovery. Traditional banks rarely give loans to this type of small business.

Community banks, the traditional lenders to small business, are not lending as freely as before.

Small business access to loans has remained low during 2010. The decline in banks lending to small business was affected by the credit crisis of 2008-2009.

Citicorp has stepped into the breach. It has already distributed funds.

A Chicago nonprofit received funds for a 60 seat restaurant. It serves low cost meals to 3500 low income families and so far employs 49 people with plans for another 12 full -time employees.

Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citi said, “Citi’s investment in the Communities at Work Fund underscores our commitment to the economic life of the communities we serve and to the U.S. economic recovery.”

“We recognize that too many small businesses, microenterprises, charter schools and community service institutions simply do not have access to credit, yet they are engines for economic growth. The Communities at Work Fund will leverage the expertise of the leaders in the Community Development finance sector and provide much-needed financing in these markets.”

Global Director of Citi Microfinance and Community Development, Bob Annibale, stressed, “Citi’s investment in the Communities at Work Fund is driven by our commitment to providing funding to small businesses and microenterprises, which are a primary source of job creation and opportunity for underserved communities.”

He states, “This is not philanthropy, but an investment in the CDFI sector, which is rooted in local communities and provides innovative financing for community development and economic growth.”

Calvert Foundation President and CEO Shari Berenbach said, “Small businesses are the engines of local economies, but the entrepreneurs behind these businesses often have the most trouble getting financing. These businesses are withering in the absence of financing.”

For over 30 years CDFI Loan Funds have been an effective way to create economic opportunities in areas that do not attract loans from banking institutions.

Low Income Areas Receive Access to Citicorp Inc (NYSE:C) Funds was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The Des Moines-based mortgage unit for the big bank planned to re-file documents for 55,000 individual cases by the middle of November. At the same time, the company noted that not every one of those posted cases contained errors, but no one listed how many did.

Representatives have stated that the mistakes on the foreclosure forms were purely technical in nature. For instance, there were several problems that occurred during the final review of foreclosure affidavits and notarizations. In these cases, the documents did not fulfill the strict guidelines required by current procedures.

Wells Fargo has said it wishes to submit supplemental affidavits to replace those that were incorrectly issued.

This event has not affected Wells Fargo’s plans to maintain foreclosure processing. It did not join other major banks like Ally Financial’s GMAC and Bank of America in suspending foreclosure filings.

Teri Schrettenbrunner, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman had the following to say: “We don’t believe that there are instances in which the foreclosures would not have occurred otherwise.”

The foreclosure documents will be re-filed in a total of twenty-three states, including Iowa, where a judge must approve all foreclosures.

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf said that he was confident his company’s current practices, procedures and documentation were correct in a conference call with certain investors.

According to depositions given by two Wells Fargo employees, there are reasons to question the company’s foreclosure practices. One employee, working in Fort Mill, South Carolina gave testimony back in March that she had signed upwards of 300 to 500 foreclosures on a daily basis. Another employee stated that he had personally verified only dates on around 150 documents he signed each day. He relied on the help of co-workers in order to verify the information was accurate.

As a consequence of these depositions, the attorney generals in all fifty states have began joint investigates into Wells Fargo’s practices. Both the paperwork and the legal procedures are being evaluated to determine whether they were handled appropriately in thousands of cases. The attorneys generals are planning to meet lenders regarding the probe. Loan servicers were also contacted as well in conference call settings. Iowa’s own attorney general, Tom Miller is heading the multi-state probe.

A spokesman for Miller, Geoff Greenwood, was able to confirm certain meeting dates but was unable to comment on the identities of the banks expected to show up. He also stated that Miller’s office was currently examining Wells Fargo’s disclosure information.

Greenwood added, “We will initiate communication with Wells Fargo, just as we have with other companies that have disclosed flaws in their foreclosure process.”

The company has completed over 500,000 mortgage loan modifications (556,868 to be exact). This figure included $3.5 billion in principal forgiveness. Additionally, Wells Fargo has refinanced almost 1.9 million mortgage loans since January of 2009.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Claims Responsibility For Errors On Foreclosure Paperwork was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

All across the United States, banks at every level are facing revenue declines as the financial industry seems poised at the brink of the lowest growth rates since the Depression era. This slow growth period has likely been influenced by other factors such as Citigroup’s decision to enact new regulations that restrict capital rules, derivatives, as well as fees on accounts and credit cards.

Yet, there are other problems for the beleaguered financial institution. The latest information shows that Citigroup is still caught up in the throes of serious mortgage issues. In a recent New York Time report, the number of loan modification issued to the big bank had reached a new record low the previous month. This was part of multi-month trend. The Treasury Department noted that on 28,000 borrowers obtained permanent loan modifications in September 2010. This made it the lowest total number since the fall of 2009 when the program was first implemented. It is a clear indication that the loan modifications are not achieving the kind of results hoped for in most cases.

Far worse for Citigroup and many of its competitors in the financial sector is an announcement that the company Lender Procession Services and several of the major U.S. banks are officially under criminal investigation. In fact, a number of State and federal law enforcement agents are conducting a series of probes to discover whether members of Lender Processing, several foreclosure processing groups, and the bank administrators that hired them, were involved in criminal activities.

The details are yet to be worked out but a number of big banks are under investigation in order to ascertain more information about the nature of the crimes. Citigroup, as well as J.P. Morgan Chase, and Bank of America Corp are top-ranking clients of Lender Processing.

The criminal charges are causing uncertainty about the future of many organizations in the financial sector. That Citigroup in also in the mix does not bode well for the near-term improvement of the industry.

Citigroup’s (NYSE: C) Stocks Drop In Wake Of Projected Financial Declines was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Bank of America is not the only lender under the microscope when it comes to potential faulty foreclosures. Other big lenders including JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo are being investigated as well. Attorney Generals in all 50 states have teamed up to take a close look at how lenders have been processing foreclosures as a response to accusations that some lenders have been unfairly evicting homeowners. Accusations include not filing paperwork, getting improper signatures, falsifying documents, not following proper legal procedures and more. As a result of the accusations Bank of America along with other lenders halted their current foreclosure procedures.

Bank of America had been quick on the defense and until this week had claimed no mistakes had been made. As they began examining documents however, they had no choice but to own up to the errors, even if they were minor ones.

Bank of America is currently the number one lender in the country, holding 1 in 5 American mortgages. Other banks are watching as they proceed to examine and re-file with the courts, the cases in question. With only having looked at such a small number of the questionable cases, there is no telling what will be found in the remainder of the documents.

Bank of America is still defending their actions and saying that human errors do happen. While they are now saying that they cannot claim to be perfect, they are being assertive in saying that they did follow proper procedures and are careful to make sure that all of their customers are treated fairly.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Owns Up to Foreclosure Document Errors was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Customer feedback from this selected group will be analysed before a larger rollout of cards to Citi customers occurs in 2011. Citi’s points system, which enables cardholders access to prizes or cash payout, will be maintained, but with instant access to redeeming points and cash.

Executive Vice president of Citi’s North American Credit Card Division, Terry O’Neil says, “People don’t typically think of credit cards as an innovative product, but we are excited to be the first issuer to pilot these advanced technologies and additional choice at checkout through the ‘next generation’ of credit cards.”

The new Citicard, Citi 2G Credit Card, incorporates the latest credit card technology which now gives the user a choice of 2 options at point of purchase.

These 2 options are the choice to pay from “Regular Credit” or from “Request Rewards”. The “Request Rewards” allows the customer to redeem points or cash instantly. This happens when the customer presses the “Request Rewards” button on the card.

The customer must know the level of reward points available. The card works in the same way as the old card technology. It there are not enough points available, the customer will still be charged as before.

An issue against this new technology is customers may think they are getting goods free of charge and with no waiting period. It is still the same rewards system that takes time to compile the points. They are never added to a customer’s account instantly.

The new cards are heavier than the older ones and Citibank has not specified the cost to the customer of owning one.

However, the credit card, according to phone and industry consultant Richard Crone, of Crone Consulting in San Carlos, is on the decline.

“We have reviewed more than 100 companies that are developing payment schemes that would eliminate cards altogether,” he says.

Citicorp has a belief in the success of their new card. They see their rewards program as being even more rewarding with the new Citi 2G Credit Cards. They view it as being more than a “debit or credit” card.

Citi (NYSE: C) to Launch Updated Credit Card was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Wells Fargo is established throughout the United States as a community based financial services company. It provides a range of Financial Services from its more than 10.000 banking stores and 12 000 ATMs. The company also provides internet services and international distribution points as well.

Wells Fargo employs more than 278,000 people and claims customers in one out of three US households. Specific services provided, include mortgages, investments, insurance and commercial and consumer finance.

Wells Fargo’s aim is to satisfy the financial needs of each customer. To support this vision the Company has developed a new customer service plan. It is aware of the importance of educating customers about the role of credit in their lives and so ensuring they make wise financial decisions.

The recently launched educational video series coupled with an online quiz is aimed at providing customers the knowledge they need about their own credit situation as well as pointing out the credit services available. Wells’ Fargo employees are featured in the videos. The video information includes what lenders are looking for as well as the information about how credit works.

Jamie Moldafsky, an executive vice president in Wells Fargo’s Home Equity Group says, “Credit and how one qualifies can be a mystery to a lot of people. With today’s economic challenges, it’s more important than ever for consumers to understand credit and debt management. We have developed numerous tools for consumers to learn more about their credit, so they are better equipped.”

The videos are produced in English and Spanish.

The English Videos can be downloaded from:

Smarter Credit^TM Center (https://www.wellsfargo.com/smarter_credit/index).

Financial Education Center (https://www.wellsfargo.com/financial-education/index), and YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/wellsfargo).

The Wells Fargo Spanish videos can be downloaded from:

YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2F9C8EA9595D90FE

To complement the online education Wells Fargo employees are also moving into communities and talking to individuals and families about managing credit and personal finances.

Because it has had a conservative home lending policy Wells Fargo was not badly hurt by the mortgage policy crisis of 2008.

Wells Fargo joins Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase to control more than 30% of bank deposits due to its purchase of Wachovia Corporation from Citicorp.

Wells Fargo’s (NYSE: WFC) Plan to Educate Customers was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

According to Gavriella Schuster, general manager of Windows product management, the new software exceeded all expectations. Windows 7 made up more than 17% of the operating system worldwide market in 2010.

Windows 7 is now the operating system on more than 1.2 billion PCS throughout the world. Customer satisfaction is around 94%. It is also the chosen operating system for new PCs. 93% of new PCs have Windows 7 installed

The principal analyst of the Enderle Group, Rob Enderle said, “First realize that one of the reasons Windows 7 is so good is that Windows Vista was so bad. So it’s making up for some of the slip that Windows Vista caused. Windows 7 has largely eliminated what was a huge exposure in Microsoft’s ability to defend its own space.”

Microsoft’s internal research indicates that people are now more likely to recommend Windows 7 than a year ago. IT professionals also supported Windows 7 over XP. This trend appeared in the first five months of the software’s release.

Windows 7 is also economical. Microsoft says the annual cost to run Windows 7 will be $140 cheaper for every PC. This means a 131% first year investment saving.

Rob Enderle commented, “As the dominant vendor, Microsoft has far more to lose than to gain. Stealing market share from Apple and Linux isn’t going to get them very far. So having a strong offering holds off challengers.”

“I should point out, though, that Apple is still doing very well in the face of Windows 7 and that is ongoing, but this performance showcases the potential for what Windows 8 could do. While Windows 7 sort of made up for the shortfalls of Windows Vista, Windows 8 has the chance to move the ball, and we’ll see if it does that.”

Al Gillen, IDC analyst and program president for system software says, “For most business customers, a migration is not something that happens in a period of weeks or months,” “The average customer doing an operating-system deployment in conjunction with a new PC deployment usually takes a couple of years to get through.”

Gavriella Schuster says it will be necessary for Microsoft to persuade more businesses to upgrade to Windows 7 during the second year for both consumer and enterprise success. “It is very important,” she said. “Enterprise is over half of our Windows revenue.”

Windows Seven a Resounding Success for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Third quarter profits for Citigroup came in right around the $2.2 billion mark, which in turn sent their stock up by 7 cents per share or 4%.This is a huge turnaround from just a year ago when the company was spiraling downward. Last year third quarter Citigroup turned in a loss of 3.4 billion, sending stocks down at that time 27 cents per share.

While Citigroup’s third quarter profits do look good on paper, it is important to note that the majority of the 2.2 billion reported was from temporary funds the company had previously set aside as a means to protect Citigroup from loans gone bad. Many analysts are looking at this as a good sign however, saying that Citigroup is showing that they are confident that loan defaults will continue to decline.

Loan defaults for Citgroup have been consistently declining and third quarter statistics show continued improvement. It was the 5^th quarter in a row that the company was able to report a decrease in loan defaults, showing an astonishing 30% decrease. Other promising news for the company is that credit card defaults also seem to be declining, possibly showing that Americans are working hard to fix their personal finances. Third quarter statistics showed that credit card holders who were 90 days late dropped by 19% and during the same time period, credit cards that were 30 days late dropped by 24%

Citigroup has also been looking to foreign markets to help them recover. The company is showing a strong presence in dominating markets in Latin America and Asia. If Citigroup continues on the same path they just may become the global bank to compete with.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) Reports Promising 3rd Quarter Profits was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

He first came into conflict with Citicorp executives in 2002 after publicly criticizing the group about their risk management policy and aggressive accounting tactics.

Mayo says, “Many of Citi’s problems relate to risk management, and there are several red flags.”

In his recent report, “A Matter of Trust”, Mayo wrote that the way Citicorp planned to meet its financial targets “can encourage short-term excesses over long-term prudence”.

Mayo believes Citicorp is not profitable, even though its accounting shows this. Citicorp, in his opinion, needs to review its accounting practices.

Citicorp’s use of the deferred tax asset accounting issue, which enables companies with losses to use future assets to reduce tax obligations, is of particular concern to Michael Mayo.

For almost two years Mayo’s request for a meeting with Senior Citigroup officers was ignored, even though it is not unusual for Wall Street executives, to meet with stock analysts at times.

In a recent interview Mayo said, “It is aggressive accounting.” Not writing down tax assets “is a window into the risk management practices at the company. It is emblematic of a bigger issue, of being overly aggressive.”

Unlike companies, in a similar position to itself, Citicorp has not written down any of its $50 billion deferred tax assets.

Mayo also disagrees with the public announcement by Citicorp that it plans to develop assets in the future. “I think it is inappropriate to list any target based on growth of assets because it is dependent on outside economic forces, which Citi can’t control,” he said.

The response of a Citicorp spokeswoman was, “Citi is very comfortable with the recording of our deferred tax assets. We have provided extensive detail on our D.T.A. in various regulatory filings.”

Even a chance meeting with Citigroup’s chief executive, Vikram S. Pandit, by Mayo in Boston in June 2010, did not get an appointment for a meeting.

In July 2010, at Citigroup’s second-quarter earnings conference call with analysts, Mayo publically raised the issue again.

As a result of this public stance, Citicorp Management on Sept.10, 2010, finally set a meeting date.

On Friday 15^th October 2010, Michael Mayo met with Citigroup’s chief executive, Vikram S Pandit and chief financial officer John C Gerspach.

A Financial Analyst’s View of Citicorp (NYSE: C) Accounting Practices was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

This agreement ends a state wide investigation of some of the mortgages sold by Wachovia Corp., Golden West, and World Savings, that may have violated the Consumer Fraud Act.

These companies were purchased by Wells Fargo in 2008. They were selling so-called “Pick-a-Payment” mortgages by advertising low monthly payment options. The companies failed to warn their borrowers that the minimum payment option was not covering the interest on the loan, which then resulted in an increase in the loan’s principle balance. This then resulted in those consumer’s monthly payments rising to higher amounts that were not anticipated by the borrower. According to the Attorney General’s Office, this caused many borrowers to lose their homes.

Up to $2 million of the $3.98 million that Wells Fargo will pay the state of New Jersey will be distributed as restitution to the consumers with Pick-a-Payment mortgages that became delinquent and had to leave their homes due to a foreclosure between January 2, 2005 and December 18, 2010. The remaining amount will be used for programs to combat mortgage and loan modification fraud, and to help prevent foreclosures.

Wells Fargo is also forgiving accrued interest and late fees for those eligible borrowers that became delinquent on their Pick-a-Payment mortgages. Depending on the circumstances of the case, Wells Fargo is also allowing principle forgiveness, loan extension, additional time to pay off the principle, and interest rate reduction. Wells Fargo is estimating that more than 900 New Jersey borrowers will be eligible for the mortgage modifications.

As stated on Law.com, “The companies selling the mortgages failed to tell borrowers that choosing the minimum-payment option could lead to a “treadmill of debt,” Attorney General Paula Dow said in a statement. “In many cases, those who seek out these ‘minimum payment’ option mortgages are the very people who have the most limited financial resources,” she continued. “Signing them up for loan terms that sound attractive without warning them of the potential financial pitfalls is wrong, and we intend to hold companies that engage in such conduct accountable.”

This agreement with Wells Fargo in New Jersey is similar to the ones it reached with attorneys general in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, Texas, and Washington.

Deceptive Mortgage Claims Will Cost Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) $71 Million was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Wells Fargo Securities is meant to act as a dealer of International Bank for Reconstruction and Development notes (or World notes) issued through the Global Debt Issuance Facility. The direct recipients of these notes include customers who receive them via Wells Fargo Investments and Wells Fargo Advisors, the company’s brokerage firms.

Initially launched in the second quarter of this year, the measure has already raised around $120 million to replenish the World Bank. Thus it has helped fund the stated objectives of the organization, such as improving global standards of living, health, education, as well environmental protection among others.

Kenneth Lay, the Vice President and Treasurer of the World Bank, made a few comments about the situation, stating that the company was happy to be offering more opportunities to reach investors in the United States. Additionally, he was optimistic about the opportunities to finance bigger projects geared towards achieving sustainable improvements to the standards of living in the global community. He and said it was help that the measures were giving the World Bank more visibility in the U.S.

The name of the game has been to create a reasonable program to distribute investment opportunities to a wider cross section of Wells Fargo customers, while also providing necessary funds to the World Bank. The latter point is looked upon by some as a very noble gesture.

The topics of sustainability and environmental protection are definitely in the social consciousness and will continue to play an increased role as time goes on. The World Bank stands to benefit in a number of ways. Those who are interested in finding out more about this situation – especially the World Bank bonds and the Global Debt Issuance Facility may do further research online or by visiting their website at www.worldbank.org/debtsecurities.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Securities and the World Bank Announced Program For Investment Opportunity Expansions In U.S. Retail Sector was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The grant money from Bank of America has been available so far for just six short weeks, but during that time the funds have been utilized by the SBA (Small Business Association) and the Department of Agriculture to access $27.5 million in funding. With this money the agencies will be able to issue approximately 2000 microloans to entrepreneurs and other small business throughout the country. Potentially this could mean the creation of up to 4000 new jobs.

Bank of America’s donations are specifically uses to fund what is called loan-loss reserves. This is the funding that must be set aside to back loans that carry a risk of not being paid back. Without this reserve money agencies are unable to make these vital loans.

Bank of America’s Global Commercial Banking President David Darnell was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as having said, “Helping strengthen small businesses and new start-up companies stimulates job creation and is critical to our nation’s economic recovery.”

During the economic crisis many organizations that provide these microloans have been up a against a brick wall with funding restraints as well as regulations that have made it very difficult for them to loan money. Creating new jobs has been argued by many to be vital to economic recovery. Mr. Darnell was also reported as emphasizing how critical these micro loans are. Even very small grants offer these non-profit agencies the leverage to lend money up to ten times the amount of the original grant. As a result businesses are able to expand and create jobs, which in turn stimulate the economy.

Bank Of America Begins Issuing Grant Money for Micro Loans was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) joins JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup, who have reviewed their mortgage lending policies. The fallout from ill advised mortgages, especially those set up by brokers, has resulted in multitude buyback requests, law suits and fraud accusations against banks.

Barbara Desoer, head of Bank of America’s mortgage division, said in a statement, “By exiting the first mortgage wholesale channel, we can direct critical operational resources to further enhance our capabilities in direct-to-consumer channels. This is an investment in strengthening our competitive position.”

Large servicers like Bank of America, are also receiving pushback from owners, investors and regulators due to mistakes in loan setup procedures. Paperwork errors have led to a raft of litigation. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, JP Morgan, GMAC Mortgage have pushed back loans to servicers over the past year.

Bank of America halted foreclosures in dozens of states over the weekend because of the litigation associated with paperwork errors. JP Morgan and GMAC Mortgage did the same.

Large lenders including Citi, U.S Bancorp, HSBC and PNC Financial Services are reportedly scrutinizing their foreclosures at the regulator’s request.

Central to the banks’ buyback mortgage problem, is the so-called “originate to sell” model. Mortgage originators took no responsibility after loans were in place. As many loans as possible were pushed through without the paperwork being checked. Investors in mortgages have used paperwork errors as a reason why service providers must buy back debt.

Foreclosures are not happening due to the equally hasty and sloppy default servicing model. Banks employed thousands of employees who were inadequately trained, to move borrowers through the loan application process.

Executives had not scrutinized the information in mortgage documents due to the overwhelming number of applications. Homeowners are now contesting the seizure of their homes in court, saying banks have seized homes improperly.

There is now only one major money-center bank, the San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, which is continuing with foreclosure proceedings.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Drops Mortgage Brokers was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Eight of the largest mortgage servicers have offered an alternative mortgage modification to 44.5 percent of the homeowners that had canceled HAMP modifications. For their homeowners that were denied even the trial modifications, 31.3 percent were offered alternate modifications.

Bank of America on the other hand, only offered alternative mortgages to 24 percent of the homeowners who had HAMP trial modifications canceled. For their homeowners that were denied the trial modifications, only 11 percent were offered an alternative modification.

As stated in the Huffington Post, “Bank of America seems to be stubbornly refusing to go along with the program,” said Valparaiso University Law School professor Alan White, who first flagged Bank of America’s standout performance in a Public Citizen blog post. “Bank of America has also mastered the art of false hopes,” wrote White. “It has converted only 26% of trial modifications to permanent ones, while servicers as a whole have achieved a rate of over 50% (still terrible, but it’s all relative.) Over half of Bank of America’s trial modifications are more than six months old, despite the fact that they are supposed to convert to permanent or be canceled after three months.”

Each month, before the Treasury Department releases their HAMP data, Bank of America puts out a press release promoting their mortgage modification. Last week, Bank of America claimed they have an “industry leading 79,859 completed modifications through the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.” Quite the misleading statement though, as stated in the Huffington Post, “It has more permanent modifications than any other servicer, but that may be because the bank has an eligible pool of delinquent mortgages more than twice the size of every other servicer’s (except Chase, which services 201,771 mortgages to Bank of America’s 383,482).”

The goal of the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program was to give eligible homeowners a five year permanent modification (after a three month trial period), to “enable as many as three to four million homeowners to modify the terms of their mortgages to avoid foreclosure.” However, more people have been canceled from the program than have been given permanent modifications to their mortgages.

So far, the Treasury Department has not fined a servicer for a mortgage for noncompliance with HAMP or given them penalties. The Government Accountability Office stated that Treasury’s absence of penalties for bad servicers, such as Bank of America “risks inconsistent treatment of servicer noncompliance and lacks transparency with respect to the severity of the steps it will take for specific types of noncompliance.”

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) at the top of the list for poor HAMP performance was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Winners from the voting have finally been announced, here’s a list of companies who won, the prize money awarded, and the themes they entered:

$1 Million in Prize Money

Shweeb entered a “drive innovation in public transport” theme. The general idea is human-powered vehicles that look a lot like recumbent bikes, traveling over a monorail system. The prize money will be used in research of making these personal transportation systems a viable option for short-distances in urban environments.

$2 Million in Prize Money

The Khan Academy entered “make educational content available online for free” theme. The academy current does this with a library containing almost 2,000 video lessons in math, finance, history and science. The money will be used to create additional courses and to help Khan Academy translate their existing library into multiple languages.

The PublicResource.Org entered the theme of “making government more transparent”, where they will attempt to get support for making public legal materials available at no cost to consumers. At this time, the court systems charge 8 cents per page to access legal materials filed in federal court (through PACER). Their theme would bring these materials to the public at no cost.

The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences entered a theme of “providing quality education to African Students” in an effort to help talented graduates in South Africa move on to higher education programs in Mathematics.

$3 Million in Prize Money

FIRST entered the theme “enhance science and engineering education” as an effort to get young people excited about technology and science. They create team-based competitions for building robots or lego buildings. The money will be used to develop a new student-driven robotics team fundraising program, so more students will be able to participate in teams through FIRST.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Announces Winners of Project 10^100 Contest – $10 Million in Prizes was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

In the complaint, 20 current and former Citigroup directories and executives are mentioned by name, including Vikram Pandit (the current chief executive) and Charles Prince (previous chief executive).

“We believe the suit has no merit and will defend ourselves vigorously,” a Citigroup spokeswoman said in a statement.

Norges Bank is responsible for setting monetary policy in Norway, overseeing international investments of one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund-Global. The fund has over $443 billion in assets, thanks greatly to oil and natural gas production in Norway.

Norges Bank is suing Citigroup for $735 million lost on investments in common stock and more than $100 million on Citi bonds and preferred shares, purchased between January of 2007 and January of 2009. The bank alleges that Citi made a number of misstatements about the condition of it’s financial situation, particularly involving it’s exposure in subprime mortgages and toxic assets. The misstatements lead Norges Bank to believe Citigroup was in better financial shape than was reality.

In another lawsuit filed last year, 7 Norwegian municipalities along with the bankruptcy estate of Terra Securities ASA, filed suit over the sale of $2115 million in derivatives in 2007. The claim is that the notes were misrepresented as being financially conservative and safe investments. This lawsuit is pending.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) Sued by Norway’s Central Bank for Alleged Misstatements About Financial Condition was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

As stated on Stock Briefings, “according to Jay Lawrence, Southeast communications manager for Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), as the ‘conversion week’ begins, signage will begin to appear inside former Wachovia Bank branches in the area.”

Wells Fargo plans to have the weekend of October 2-3 to have the exterior signs at the former Wachovia branches changed to the new Wells Fargo signs. They even plan on having the sign on the former Wachovia Tower changed and lit up to the Wells Fargo sign by then too.

Some Wells Fargo branches, such as those located in the Jackson metro area are being converted to the new Wells Fargo systems starting this weekend. As stated in the Clarion Ledger, “Area bank President Leigh Collier said the conversion will begin Saturday. By Oct. 4, Wachovia’s familiar green and blue logo will give way to Wells Fargo’s red and yellow. We want our (customers) to know we are working diligently to make the transition as seamless as we possibly can. Account numbers will stay the same, and accounts from Wachovia have been grandfathered into Wells Fargo products.”

However, the local markets may or may not like the change to Wells Fargo. As stated in the Clarion Ledger, Mississippi Banking Commissioner John Allison stated Wells Fargo is converting Wachovia branches by region and it is too early to tell how the company will fare in the local market. It’s hard to say how much market share they’ll get until they start the Wells procedure of marketing, but Wells has always had a good reputation of being a strong institution.

One of the positive things about the change is that many of the branches will be keeping the same staff from when the bank was Wachovia. As told to the Clarion Ledger, “The same folks you see in our local stores or branches will be the same people who will open up the doors on Monday,” Collier stated. This helps those who want the bank to feel like it is more of a local business. Solomon added to the Clarion Ledger, “We’re a national bank, but we have a great local feel. Community involvement is a big focus area for us as we move in to 2011.”

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) signage to replace Wachovia as conversion begins was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Bank of America is the largest retail bank in the United States. It is feeling more pressure than perhaps other banks to find new ways to generate this lost revenue from the new federal regulations. As stated in an article  published on www.ft.com, “at a recent investor conference, Brian Moynihan, chief executive, said ‘Over the next 12 months, we will reset the entire product line’.”

In the past, banks made up to half of their profits on current accounts by charging overdraft fees. This will no longer be true. Banks may still charge overdraft fees, with their customer’s consent. However, Bank of America is striving to be customer friendly and has waived those fees completely, giving up an estimated $1 billion in annual revenue.

According to the Financial Times, Bank of America intends to try out a new tiered pricing system. This effort will hopefully create more revenue from their customer’s accounts.

This new structure plans on having Bank of America reward their best customers for maintaining a certain minimum current account balance, using their credit cards a specified number of times each month, or conducting all of their banking electronically. Their customers that do not meet their requirements will be charged more for their accounts. Bank of America believes that this will boost their revenues without charging possible controversial “across the board” fee raises.

Bank of America essentially wants to “unbundle” their pricing, much like cellular companies and the airline industry have done recently. They will be testing these newly priced packages in a handful of markets by the end of this year.

In August, they started these by waiving all maintenance fees for their customers that elected to do their banking online. Their customers who wanted paper statements have to now pay $8.95 per month. Since Bank of America launched this program, about forty percent of their new current accounts have elected to receive their statements electronically and conduct their banking online. However, more have decided to bank the traditional way and have agreed to pay the fee to receive a paper statement each month.

As stated in the Financial Times, “We’re not guaranteeing that we will recover all of the revenue lost as a result of the new regulations, but over several years we think we’ll get back a good share,” said Joe Price, who runs Bank of America’s consumer bank.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) to try new pricing structure to offset lost revenue was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Gormbley worked for General Electric from 2000 until September of 2009, when he quit. Gormbley filed his lawsuit against GE in a state court in Stamford, Connecticut. The lawsuit also names parent General Electric Co., and its chief executive officer, Jeffrey Immelt.

Edward Gormbley is claiming that he was punished for challenging the value of Momentive Performance Materials, which is a silicon maker and an investment asset for the company. As stated in Bloomberg, “GE Capital overstated Momentive’s value in December 2008 to improve its own balance sheet, he said. Valuing the asset correctly would have reduced “GE Capital’s earnings 100 percent,” in the fourth quarter that year, according to the complaint. “Mr. Gormbley refused to play GE’s game and just ‘get along,” according to the filing. “GE and GE Capital’s response was direct, unmistakable and as subtle as a hangman’s noose.”

According to Gormbley, he was cut from his responsibilities, was downgraded in employee evaluations, and even his annual bonus was slashed. He claims that this is what was forced him to leave the company. Gormbley is currently seeking $10 million in damages.

As stated in an article published on bloomberg.com , “The allegations in Mr. Gormbley’s complaint are meritless,” Russell Wilkerson, a spokesman for Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE, said in an e-mailed statement. “The company will vigorously defend itself against these baseless assertions.”

Momentive, formerly known as GE Advanced Materials, was sold in 2006 for $3.8 billion by GE to the New York private investment firm Apollo Management LP. GE Capital, retained a 10 percent interest in Momentive, and held $400 million worth in notes. Wilkerson claimed that the company originally valued their Momentive investment at $50 million. Wilkerson also claims that GE “correctly accounted” for their Momentive investment at all times. He says that the present value is at around $25 million.

As stated on bloomberg.com, “Wilkerson called the claims in the suit “suspect,” adding that Gormbley owes the company more than $100,000 lent to him to pursue a master’s degree in business administration. Wilkerson also said the former executive wrote some of the accounting documents about which he now complains. In his complaint, Gormbley said GE Capital’s human resources department threatened to revoke the student loans last year.”

The case name is: Gormbley v. General Electric Co., FST-CV10- 6006588-S, Connecticut Superior Court (Stamford).

GE’s former executive suing company over termination (NYSE: GE) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

This meeting to discuss the future plans for Lincoln will take place on October 4^th, 2010 at Ford’s Dearborn, Michigan, headquarters. The meeting will be the first gathering of Lincoln dealers since the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury dealers met in April 2008. It is now being held as Ford is preparing to phase out the Mercury brand, and still negotiating with dealers on compensation for dropping the Mercury brand.

As stated by Reuters, “It will be a Lincoln update… giving dealers a look at how Ford will now work with Lincoln as an exclusive, luxury brand,” Ford spokesman Christian Bokich said.

Ford is also expected to include investment to enhance the dealerships to lure in the luxury buyer. Bokich did not however confirm or deny if these investments would include upgrading showrooms to be a part of their new plan for selling Lincolns. He did however state that they want to ensure that “the customer experience is better.”

Out of the roughly 1,700 Mercury dealerships, most of them are paired with either Ford or Ford and Lincoln. At the end of July, there were 264 Lincoln-Mercury dealerships. Many of the dealerships have been depending on Mercury for the majority of their sales. These dealerships are uncertain what the future will look like fi they are only reliant on Lincoln for their sales.

To avoid a protracted legal battle, Ford has offered a payout to some Mercury dealers for $300,000 to $400,000. Bokich had no comment on this matter because negotiations are still ongoing. However, he did state that Mercury vehicles will no longer be produced within the next two months.

Ford is looking to bring in some more of their luxury clients. The meeting will hopefully show a brighter future for their dealers. As stated on Reuters, “Ford will use the meeting to discuss upcoming products, including versions of the MKX crossover and a hybrid MKZ sedan, and plans to build Lincoln’s image in luxury markets like New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, Bokich said.” Ford’s luxury portfolio also includes Jaguar, Volvo, and Aston Martin brands.

Despire Ford’s hopes, Lincoln has not captured much interest with younger consumers. This meeting will hopefully bring new life into Lincoln before it is too late.

Ford (NYSE: F) and Lincoln to discuss future of luxury brand was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

In an article earlier this month on consumerist.com, several interesting facts were brought to light regarding minimum credit card purchase requirements and what credit card companies have to say about them. A reader of the website, named only as Pete, noticed a statement on Visa’s official website now reads, “U.S. retailers may require a minimum purchase amount on credit card transactions. The minimum purchase amount must not exceed $10 and does not apply to transactions made with a debit card.”

This prompted the website to look into other major credit cards to determine if they are permitting minimum credit card purchase requirements. From their research it was learned that MasterCard is currently not permitting minimum credit card purchase requirements at this time, but plans on changing that rule in the future. Information on where Discover stands was unavailable.

American Express is supportive of a minimum credit card purchase requirement if all credit cards are subject to the same restrictions. For example, a merchant is prohibited from imposing a minimum purchase requirement for American Express customers if there is no such restriction for customers using Visa. In fact, according to the article on consumerist.com, an American Express representative made this statement when asked for confirmation of the information appearing on the official website.

“American Express’ policy has been to require parity with other payment products (this is the “equally imposed” section you referenced). In other words, if a merchant chooses to require a minimum for credit card transactions – it must be the same for all credit card products. As you’re probably aware, the Dodd-Frank Act allows for merchants to set $10.00 minimums for credit card transactions but does not allow merchants to differentiate by issuers or payment card networks (i.e. a minimum for a card issued by Bank X on Network Y but not cards issued by Bank A on Network B).”

Consumers who rarely carry cash and use their credit cards for the majority of their purchases may find these new rules affecting where they can use their cards for purchases under $10.

Visa okay with minimum credit card purchase requirements (NYSE: V) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The $150 million settlement was funded by the Charlotte, NC-based bank through its aptly named Bank of America Fair Fund back in February. A spokesman from Bank of America was not available to field specific comments.

The back-story of this settlement involved the ongoing lawsuit that was filed by the Securities and Exchange Committee in 2009. The suit claimed that Bank of America did not disclose that shareholder bonuses were paid to Merrill brokers and they did not report the multibillion dollar loss the bank was about to assume just before closing on the merger. The big bank had already settled with SEC earlier this year following the months-long court controversy.

Further Concerns

Bank of America’s former CEO and Chairman Ken Lewis had characterized the merger as a great deal, a “deal of a lifetime” when it was originally announced back in September of 2008. Yet, Lewis ended up losing his position in the ensuing problems surrounding the merger. This put the mess into the hands of new CEO Brian Moynihan.

Other problems await Bank of America and its troubles with Merrill Lynch, even following the approval of the fair fund distribution. There is still the matter of the lawsuit that was filed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo alleging fraud.

The settlement is available to shareholders on record as of January 16, 2009 who own the bank’s common stock. Unfortunately, the former Merrill Lynch shareholders who got Bank of America stocks in the merger will not be eligible for settlement compensation.

Bank of America’s share prices have been shaky in recent times, just as many other portions of the financial sector remain fragile. Industry observers point out that certain hedge funds have started exchanging their Bank of America shares for Citigroup shares.

SEC Settlement Finalizes Bank Of America (NYSE: BAC) Shareholder Fund was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Neither Crittenden or Tildesley admitted to wrongdoing, but agreed to paid their individual fines of $100,000 and $80,000 respectively, to settle the charges against them. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claim that Crittenden and Tildesley were the two bank executives most closely associated with misleading or covering up the subprime losses than the others, but U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle rejected the SEC request to settle. The judge wants additional information about why the other executives listed in the report as having knowledge aren’t being held accountable for the same crime.

Citigroup Inc. (Citigroup) is a global diversified financial services holding company. The Company provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a range of financial products and services. As of December 31, 2009, Citigroup had approximately 200 million customer accounts and did business in more than 140 countries. Citigroup operates through two primary business segments: Citicorp, consisting of its Regional Consumer Banking (RCB) businesses and Institutional Clients Group (ICG), and Citi Holdings, consisting of its Brokerage and Asset Management (BAM), Local Consumer Lending (LCL), and Special Asset Pool (SAP). In April 2010, Barclays PLC acquired Italian credit card business of Citibank International Bank plc. In May 2010, the Company announced the creation of a new Collateral Management Services unit within its Securities and Fund Services business.