Personal Finance Advice

There is a lot to love about credit unions, especially when they’re compared to banks. They lack the huge conglomerate feel that many big banks have, and they often have a local flavor which lets them release a quirky video like this (can you imagine a wall street bank ever releasing an advertisement like that?) [...]

Last week I wrote a piece about the advantages of keeping accounts at multiple financial institutions. The benefits range from having fall back money if one account is compromised to taking advantage of the strengths of certain types of banks. While I feel that it is best to keep accounts at a least a couple [...]

I have several acquaintances that do all of their banking with one institution. (Typically it’s the bank that holds their mortgage or where they have a large investment account like an IRA or 401K.) They use that one bank for everything from paying the bills to loans to retirement savings. In some cases, they don’t [...]

New legislation that took effect on October 1st means that banks can no longer collect exorbitant fees from merchants whenever you swipe your debit card. What does this mean for you? Your bank will now likely switch to collecting those fees from you, the customer. Several banks, including Bank of America, SunTrust, Chase, and Wells [...]

By Dean L. When you read those statistics about Americans not saving money and going into credit card debt, you could place me as the poster child of the movement. Not only do I have a huge amount of credit card debt, I had less than $5 in my bank account a couple of months [...]

Since I landed my first job at age 15, I have been with the same bank. It is a credit union open only to residents of Washington State and I love the perks it gives us. When my husband and I got married, we decided to go with my bank for our checking and savings [...]