Finance Globe

Prepaid cards have been heavily criticized for the amount of fees they carry. However, considering the increased cost of checking accounts, prepaid cards may become more attractive. Walmart and American Express have introduced a prepaid card intended to rival checking accounts. The card claims to have significantly lower fees that other prepaid cards and even lower fees than checking accounts. If you're a current bank customer, you may have already realized that free checking is disappearing....

The government’s unemployment figures reported for September reflect that the nation’s jobless rate fell a whopping 0.3 percent and brought the unemployment rate to its lowest level since January 2009. The unemployment rate fell from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent last month, the Labor Department reported on Friday. The big decline was unexpected - economists had predicted the September jobless rate would increase 0.1 percentage point to 8.2 percent. Since the beginning of 2012,...

Continuously overdrafting your checking account, running out of money before you get paid again, and having to dip into savings or use your credit card to make ends meet are all signs of serious money problems. Left unsolved, money problems can lead to big trouble. Foreclosure, repossession, and bankruptcy all stem from seemingly harmless money problems – ones you thought you could get under control but somehow could never correct. Your financial well-being is too important...

A good credit score can help you qualify for the best credit card deals – ones with low interest rate, lucrative rewards, and signup bonuses. More credit card issuers are offering generous signup bonuses for new customers. For example, a points rewards credit card may offer a certain amount of points, 10,000 or more, if you spend a certain amount of money within the first few months of the card. Or, cash rewards card might reward...

If you haven’t embraced the capability of paying bills online, you may be missing out. Most companies make it easy to pay your bills over the internet within seconds. It can be so much faster than writing a check and dropping it off in the mail.How It Works Many banks have online bill pay feature that let you pay all your bills directly from your online account. Getting started can take some time – you have...

Refunds will be sent this week to consumers who were swindled by a telemarketing scam that promised “free” goods and services such as gift cards, gas cards, and resort vacations, the Federal Trade Commission reported on Thursday.Consumers who were victimized by the alleged scam were misled into thinking the caller was from the consumers’ own credit card issuer or a major retailer, and then billed for goods and services they never agreed to. When consumers didn’t...

The average credit card rates this week are 15%, according to the Weekly Credit Card Rate Report from CreditCards.com. Each week, the credit card comparison site computes averages credit card APRs using the most current interest rates offered by the leading credit card issuers. This week’s average rate is just a little higher than same period last year – 14.79% - and the exact same as they were six months ago. There's some bad news: credit...

Just a few years ago, free checking accounts were abundant. In fact, banks were basically paying for customers by offering free gifts and sometimes even cash bonuses for signing up and referring new customers. Those days are gone. According to a recent survey from Bankrate.com, only 39% of banks offer a completely free checking account, one that doesn’t have a minimum balance requirement. Last year, the number was 45% and in 2009, it was 75%. Free...

Sound decisions are the key to having a healthy financial life – to building wealth, paying off or staying out of debt, and to building a good credit score. Even the small, day-to-day money decisions have a big impact on your finances, so it’s important that you make the right ones. Always ask yourself whether you can afford a purchase before you make it. Affording something isn’t necessarily about having the money for it. You have...

As part of a settlement with the FDIC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Discover is required to refund about $200 million to cardholders who enrolled in credit protection plans by phone. Payment protection plans charge a small monthly fee, sometimes a percentage of your credit card balance, and promises to cover your minimum payment if you lose your job or become unemployed. You could go months or years, pay hundreds or thousands of dollars, without...