Finance Globe

Neglecting parts of the winterizing routine can be expensive.Wow, this winter's been C-O-L-D! I live in the Midwest where we typically expect a few weeks at a time of well-below freezing weather, but I think we've hit some records this year.And with this cold weather comes the excruciatingly painful heating costs. I just received my electric bill, the most expensive since the three years I've lived here. My neighbors said the same, that last month's was...

Avoid overdraft fees and Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) charges.Carefully tracking your balance is essential to good checking account management. One mathematical error or simply forgetting to document all check and debit transactions can lead to costly problems. A bad check or an automatic payment that you forgot you signed up for can easily cost you several times more than the typical $30 overdraft or Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) charge. Many merchants or service providers will try to run...

The Internal Revenue Service announced yesterday that the e-file program will open on January 16, 2009, with new features that expand access to electronic filing to help taxpayers get their refunds quicker.E-filed tax returns are safe - all tax information is protected through encryption. Plus, the tax preparation software used to e-file helps prevent many of the mathematical errors that can delay an expected refund."IRS e-file meets the needs of nearly all taxpayers, no matter how...

Housing downturn sees no end as majority of new loan applications are for refinance.The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported today that mortgage loan application volume was up 15.8% from the previous week, on a seasonally adjusted basis.This measure of the Market Composite Index was for the week ending January 9, 2009. On an unadjusted basis, the index rose 95.7% from the previous week. But while the number of mortgage applications rose, the vast majority - over...

Since December 11, 2008, Wachovia Bank began mailing restitution checks totaling more than $150 million to victims of telemarketing fraud.The checks are reimbursement for payments taken from Wachovia Bank customer's accounts, authorized without the customer's approval or knowledge, by fraudulent telemarketers and their payment processors.This restitution is part of a settlement for allegations that the bank, headquartered in North Carolina, allowed the unauthorized withdrawals from customers' bank accounts even though they knew or should have known...

The nation's economic troubles are taking its toll on consumers carrying too much debt - delinquencies are rising among many types of consumer credit accounts, as reported by the American Bankers Association (ABA) for the third quarter of 2008. Delinquencies are counted as accounts that are over thirty days past the payment due date. The ABA tracks eight types of non-revolving, closed-end installment loans - home-equity line-of-credit (HELOC), property improvement loans, direct and indirect auto loans,...

In his weekly radio and YouTube address, President-elect Barack Obama reiterated the importance of moving quickly to stem the rising unemployment rate. He said, "It’s not too late to change course – but only if we take immediate and dramatic action. Our first job is to put people back to work and get our economy working again. This is an extraordinary challenge, which is working – even before I take office – with my economic team...

2008 was been a rough year for all of us, and 2009 doesn't look much better. Millions of Americans have already lost their jobs - few industries have been safe from the plague of cutbacks among ailing businesses struggling to survive. Investors who've built up their life savings, their retirement funds, and their kid's college tuition through years of hard work and discipline have watched hopelessly as the value of their holdings plunge by 40% or...

The government reported today that U.S. economy lost 524,000 jobs in the month of December, bringing the unemployment rate up to 7.2% from November's 6.8% unemployment rate. This is the highest unemployment rate in sixteen years. Over just the last four months of 2008, almost 2 million jobs have been lost. The job losses were spread far and wide across most industries and over 11 million Americans are now out of work. Since the start of...

President-elect Barack Obama said today that the ongoing recession could last for years unless dramatic action was taken as soon as possible.Obama said, "Throughout America’s history, there have been some years that simply rolled into the next without much notice or fanfare. Then there are the years that come along once in a generation – the kind that mark a clean break from a troubled past, and set a new course for our nation. This is...