Free Banking Tips

Yes, we are busy but we have to keep in mind that at least we should browse our mails and see what may be very important. Most letters from our bank sometimes makes us think that its all about marketing. But, did you know that 25% of bank charges are due to unread emails which we could have avoided if we just alot at least a few minutes to read important bank notice? If we don't read our e-mail in a regular basis then it is better to find time browsing on our paper mails as the bank also send notices on possible changes in the banks service fees. Banks may change its requirements every six months to avoid monthly service fees depending on the market trends and cost of doing business.

Keeping our eyes on our mails will also protect us from fraudsters and makes it difficult for fraudsters to have an easy way of gathering important data regarding our banking.

Banker's Tips: Let's make sure we are up to date with the current market trends and price of bank products that may have a great impact with our finances.

Though, at times our banks may also give courtesy refunds or reimbursements yet its better to be knowledgeable of those possible bank changes.

Have you already set your bank what your solicitation preferences? Do you receive tons of advertisement from your bank, or maybe from other institution? How bout email advertisement? If you just disregard it and don't even get anything from it other than it eats off some of your time deleting emails and shredding all the papers and answering phone calls, then it is best to get rid of them. 

Banker Tips:  Call your bank and check whats in your solicitation preference. It is your right to chose whether you like to get mail or email  advertisement. You can even choose whether you prefer telephone solicitation or not. If you work night shift and you get bugged by phone calls while you are sleeping then it is better start calling and tell them what your privacy preferences are. It is your right to privacy. 

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. 

An investigation is currently on-going due to possible data breach that might have occurred in California Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV). 

The investigator are looking at the angle that this maybe related to the transactions made on its website from August 2013 to January 2014. Huge number of debit card and credit card might have been affected and the investigators have been watching closely on those accounts that currently have unauthorized transactions and are found to have used DMV online website as a form of payment in the past few months. Even though there was no clear evidence of system hack, some banks has started investigating separately and working closely to avoid losses in their customers' accounts. 

New debit and credit will be sent out to customers who might potentially affected by the possible data breach. 

Do you have a savings account? If you do, then it means you should know the meaning of Bank Regulation D. 

Regulation D is a law governed by Federal Reserve that limits each savings account only up to 6 pre- authorized debit transactions in a full statement cycle or a whole month period. The main reason for this is to implement monetary policy on how each banking institution should classify each depository accounts for reserve requirement purposes. There are different types of deposit accounts, and the most common types are the Savings and Checking Account. Savings account is mainly for savings purposes while checking account is for spending. 

To avoid penalties in a savings account which may cost between $12 to fifteen dollars per transaction, these are some transaction that we have to limit in a full month period or 1 statement cycle.

The only two debit transaction that can be done in a savings account without limits are the following:

• ATM Transfer
• Branch Electronic or counter withdrawal

Banker's Tip: Open a separate checking account and consider it a savings account. Just make sure you check with your bank what fees may apply to keep a checking account and see if you can meet the requirement. This way, you no longer have to worry about the 6 pre- authorized transaction. These works well, specially if you want to secure your funds and don't want to put all your money in just one account. But if you want to keep your savings account, then you can also keep a register of all your expenses per week and do a lump some funds transfer for your budget to avoid regular funds transfer out of the savings account. Do not forget that most banks offers unlimited ATM transfer out of the savings and even unlimited withdrawal from the branch. Wells Fargo, has an automatic set-up that reminds customers if they are about to go over the limit specially if you have online banking.