One thing is evident looking at the different bank fees and rates. They maximize revenue and minimize risk, and that’s what the institutions are geared toward, that’s what they’re in business for, like it or...

A budget can help you accomplish all of that.

If you apply to too many cards, it may raise red flags to lenders.

This has been a good time for CD investors. It’s long overdue. Income-dependent investors like retirees are seeing their cash investments finally bear fruit.

As a borrower, you have nowhere to hide.

The beginning of the year is an opportune time to look at all aspects of your finances. Part of that is getting better organized for 2006.

If you carry a balance, your focus should be on credit cards with the lowest interest rates.

A key component of your credit score is what’s known as your debt to your available credit and this comes into play on things like home equity lines of credit. If you open up a...

It’s the price of not doing business with a particular institution. Just as non-account holders bear the costs associated with an ATM network, banks are now assessing non-account holders for in-branch check cashing,

It’s the punitive fees that are escalating so quickly. What some banks are doing now is cutting the cost of the first bounced check so the guy who bounces a check once in a while...

The best accounts continue to be those offered by Internet institutions. Better still was the fact that half of the best Internet accounts were truly free — no monthly service fee and no per-item fees...

Pay your bills on time, and pay your debt down over time. Together, those factors account for 65 percent of your credit score.

The fact is an ARM that you took a year ago could easily adjust to 6.5 percent or 7 percent percent at the next adjustment. Contrast that with the ability to lock in 6 percent...

Banks have embraced consumer banking and really want to attract that business. They’re starting to realize there’s a fine line between generating fee income and alienating customers.

If you have a 30-year investment horizon, you should be pursuing higher returns than you can get on a Treasury.

If the prospects that your home will appreciate in value are good, paying PMI is not the end of the world,

Keep that line of credit open for at least the first few years, otherwise you may face a penalty or have to pay closing costs that the lender originally paid when you took out the...

And FDIC insurance won’t cover you,

You still owe the whole 30 grand.

It’s a much better deal for someone who thinks they’ll be in their house for, say, only eight years.

For the rest of the card-carrying public, they can expect another quarter-point increase to follow this.

If you have to sell in an environment of rising interest rates, you could sell it substantially below what you paid for it.

The market is going to slow from the frenetic pace of the past few years. But with fixed mortgage rates remaining below 7 percent, and expected to (remain there) for the balance of 2006, the...

But if you’re trading a lower-rate mortgage for a higher-rate one just to free up cash, you’re in a losing trade.

Conventional wisdom says if you’re getting a large refund, it’s a bad thing, that you’ve lent money to the government for free for the past year. If your refund is the only way you can...

If you have an adjustable-rate mortgage poised for an increase any time in the next two years, you are standing on the train tracks with the bright lights bearing down on you.

And FDIC insurance won’t cover you.

The range of scores is more intuitive to the consumer. Lenders will have a choice about which scoring methodology to use. Whether they accept the new system will depend on pricing, and how widespread the...

You can wind up in an unenviable position, selling your home and writing — rather than receiving — a big check.

Make sure you’re in your home long enough to recoup those costs.

It’s not the highest rate, but it’s very competitive.

It’s a game of cat-and-mouse in many ways. But there is a line that banks are reluctant to cross, and it’s one where they alienate customers because of fees.

Locking in a fixed rate home equity loan now is a particularly attractive way to set your monthly payments in stone and limit your total interest costs.

In a rising interest rate environment, there’s very little justification for holding on to credit card debt. It should almost always be the primary focus of your debt reduction efforts.

Interest rates are coming off of 45-year lows.

That’s quite the opposite of what it was six or 12 months ago when we were in a rising interest rate environment, … At that time everyone was going with the shorter term so they...

The things you need to do remain the same. You have to pay your bills on time and keep your debt level under control, regardless of who’s keeping score.

Looking back 10, 20 years ago when interest rates were high, taking an ARM was a pretty good gamble because rates were more likely to go down than up. We’re in the exact opposite environment...

Think of all the demands on each of your paychecks. There are bills that have to be paid, you have to manage your debts, hopefully pad your savings a bit and still save for retirement.

That’s the $64,000 question. Seventy percent of economic output is tied to consumer spending. The idea is to raise rates enough to stave off inflation, but not so as to curtail spending.

What we’re seeing here is a growth in the punitive type of fees. The fees are really going to get you if you step outside the bounds set by financial institutions.

Whatever that percentage, any increase in the minimum is significant. People paying the minimum are doing so for a reason: Money is tight.

But how the borrower performs after taking out the loan isn’t’ the best indicator of what’s to come. The peak for delinquencies and defaults comes between years three and five.

It pays to shop around, because it can mean the difference between half of one percent or 4.5 percent on your money. You can?t afford not to because you?d literally be leaving money on the...

The prime rate moves in concert with the Fed’s interest rate moves, … The average rate for a home equity line of credit has increased from 4.7 percent in June 2004 to 5.9 percent as...

Loyalty programs are popping up in many other areas of our daily activities, whether through the airlines or hotels, supermarkets or restaurants. It was just a matter of time before financial services joined in.

These are not things that are subject to price competition. No bank is going to advertise low bounced-check fees.

That could really crimp consumer spending and hold back economic growth.

I don’t think we’ll see credit standards get too tight. To get the very best rate, borrowers are having to be more pristine in terms of their credit history and personal balance sheet. That makes...

In that case, you are easily looking at a 9-month, maybe a year, interest penalty.