Free Banking Tips

There is nothing wrong with free trial, in fact it is good because it sounds good when we hear the word 'free.' Its not bad if its free, if it is totally free or let's say its 100% free. 

Well, are we sure it is free? When we go online we get blinded when we see the the magic word 'free trial,' but what are some problems that can cause our accounts if we end up dealing with fraud merchant? when do we say these merchants are not fraudsters? When we like the products, we forget these possibilities. It is not easy to figure out who are the fraudsters and who are not. 

Banker's Tip: Banks offer their customers to open a different account that is dedicated for online transactions. This is very advantageous specially for those who have an automatic direct deposit in their account as this can avoid affecting major funds in case unexpected things happen. Just imagine what could happen if you lose your full pay check because of this.

Let me give a very good example, Mr. Jackson works at Mega Supermarket, he receive a regular direct deposit at around $650-750.00. He signed up for a free trial at a merchant named Clear Water Club (hypothetical example), since this is free, he gave his card number online so he can get the free trial, after 2 months of signing up, Mr. Jackson received his pay check in his account, at the same time a merchant in the same name charged his account an exact amount of $325.99. Not only that, merchant also made an error as this transaction got deducted in the account twice. Because of this Mr. Jackson had no more funds left in his account as he got reap off at about $660.00, since this happened, he was not able to go to work. He cant even gas up nor buy groceries for his family.

Most of the recurring card payments to merchant are difficult to stop, sometimes card even has to be close to give a long time solution to free trials and automatic debits. Avoid providing account information if you know its not necessary to provide it unless you are confident that they are not fraudster. 

What is W8-BEN form? W8-BEN form is a Certificate of Foreign Status of foreign Beneficial Owner for Unite States Tax Withholding. This form is completed by NRAs or Non- Resident Aliens. Foreign persons are subject at a 30% rate on income received from U.S. sources that consists of:

Some of the detailed information regarding this form can also be viewed at www.irs.gov

Acknowledgement: www. irs.gov - Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service

The U.S. National Security Agency is fully aware about the flaw in the way that many website send sensitive information. Now, the Heartbleed bug have been discovered it has been regularly used to gather critical intelligence. Though the N.S.A. is trying to keep the bug secret in pursuit of national security interest, as it may trigger the issue on the role of the government's top computer experts. N.S.A tries to comment on the report but denies it was aware of Heartbleed until the vulnerability was made public by a private security report.

Since this issue is currently going on, we are starting to question on how can our online banking will be kept secured as we are not aware how our bank can protect our financial security. 

The good news is banks are fully aware of the current issue and are taking appropriate measures to keep each customer's account secured. Our online banking is secured, and no need to worry about hack or breach issues.