Catching up on financial stuff...
My interest in finance has been in hibernation until recently. When Jana was born, that was one of the things that had to subside. Not to mention consolidating accounts so I could stay sane. I may have had at least 25 accounts that I opened for bonuses, "$50, $75 or $100 when you open a checking account," "10 free trades for investing with us," "free Palm," etc.
I'm back to reading financial news, Jana now has a Scottrade account (ordeal*) and I'm just amazed.
First of all, there are very few bank promos out there now. They're mostly from Bank of America (BoA), Chase and Citi. The Citi promos are for new customers only, I took advantage of some promo years ago, so that's out. Chase's recent promo required you to print out the promo and walk into a branch office...none here. And I'm annoyed with BoA which is probably another post on its own.
The promos seem to be with credit card offers. With that, the concept of App-O-Rama seems to have hit. I remember when the guy who started it all first considered it and then documented his results. He must have applied for about 20 credit cards in 1 day. He did it on a whim to see what would happen and what it would do to his credit score. Needless to say, he now has a following and has completed his 4th round of App-O-Rama this year. I most certainly do not have the cycles to participate in something like this, but I do enjoy reading about it.
Mortgages. There's now a 40 year term fixed mortgage? Sheesh. And one of our local banks has suspended
home equity loan approvals. Then there's the government bailout of what seems to be mortgage defaults.
On the upside, there are financial institutions that now offer on-line loan applications with same day approvals. Which hopefully aren't mixed in with predatory lending practices. I think this seems to still be a big problem.
Oh well. Closer to home, we just got a Discover Bank Home Equity Loan and were surprisingly pleased with the process. Yes, online application, 30 second approval and the check was cut in 10 days. It may have been soon but Michael had 2 business trips in-between.
The value of my home has gone up significantly over the last 12 years, good time to dip in and fix the kitchen, update the plumbing and maybe do something about the roof.
* Opening Jana's account. Originally, I wanted to open her brokerage account at TD Ameritrade since that's where our account is and I seem to know where the local branches are in the various cities I frequent. However when I walked into our local branch, I sat and waited 45 minutes and got no where. There was one guy who was watching the clock and surfing. Here's what I was forced to endure...
I went up to him and the other representatives several times during my wait. They pretty much ignored me. So I stomped out and walked into the next brokerage house on my way back to my car and opened an account at Scottrade. Overall, I'm content with TD Ameritrade, my local branch just sucks.
I'm back to reading financial news, Jana now has a Scottrade account (ordeal*) and I'm just amazed.
First of all, there are very few bank promos out there now. They're mostly from Bank of America (BoA), Chase and Citi. The Citi promos are for new customers only, I took advantage of some promo years ago, so that's out. Chase's recent promo required you to print out the promo and walk into a branch office...none here. And I'm annoyed with BoA which is probably another post on its own.
The promos seem to be with credit card offers. With that, the concept of App-O-Rama seems to have hit. I remember when the guy who started it all first considered it and then documented his results. He must have applied for about 20 credit cards in 1 day. He did it on a whim to see what would happen and what it would do to his credit score. Needless to say, he now has a following and has completed his 4th round of App-O-Rama this year. I most certainly do not have the cycles to participate in something like this, but I do enjoy reading about it.
Mortgages. There's now a 40 year term fixed mortgage? Sheesh. And one of our local banks has suspended
home equity loan approvals. Then there's the government bailout of what seems to be mortgage defaults.
On the upside, there are financial institutions that now offer on-line loan applications with same day approvals. Which hopefully aren't mixed in with predatory lending practices. I think this seems to still be a big problem.
Oh well. Closer to home, we just got a Discover Bank Home Equity Loan and were surprisingly pleased with the process. Yes, online application, 30 second approval and the check was cut in 10 days. It may have been soon but Michael had 2 business trips in-between.
The value of my home has gone up significantly over the last 12 years, good time to dip in and fix the kitchen, update the plumbing and maybe do something about the roof.
* Opening Jana's account. Originally, I wanted to open her brokerage account at TD Ameritrade since that's where our account is and I seem to know where the local branches are in the various cities I frequent. However when I walked into our local branch, I sat and waited 45 minutes and got no where. There was one guy who was watching the clock and surfing. Here's what I was forced to endure...
I went up to him and the other representatives several times during my wait. They pretty much ignored me. So I stomped out and walked into the next brokerage house on my way back to my car and opened an account at Scottrade. Overall, I'm content with TD Ameritrade, my local branch just sucks.