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FNBO Launches Pay Yourself First YouTube Contest
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FNBO, which has made itself pretty well known among online bankers, is launching an online video contest: the Pay Yourself First Challenge.
FNBO Direct wants to hear about your savings obstacles. Have you been struggling to save for college tuition or a wedding, pay off medical bills, go on the vacation of a lifetime or just get out of debt? Whatever the reason, we want to hear about it. Make us laugh. Make us cry. Make us say, "Wow! This person really needs to learn how to Pay Yourself First!"
To enter the contest, you have to shoot a 10- to 60-second video on your savings challenges and upload it to FNBO's YouTube channel.
The winner, as judged by FNBO, receives a "Restore Your Balance" vacation — a trip to a resort and spa (or cash in place of the voucher).
What are the judges looking for?
According to the official rules …
* Saved the most money during the challenge – based on percentage increase, rather than dollar amount saved (50%)
* Ranking by financial experts based on challenger's saving skill level: tactics for saving, ability to meet saving goal, and sharing saving challenges and solutions with PYF community (20%)
* Vote by American public via poll on www.PYFChallenge.com that judges the challengers' saving skill level: tactics for saving, ability to meet saving goal, and sharing saving challenges and solutions with PYF community (20%)
* Adherence to contest requirements, including active participation in the challenge activities such as blogging on www.PYFChallenge.com, and other promotional activities (10%)Check out FNBO's promotional video for the contest.
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Using SmartyPig As a Honeymoon Fund
As you may have read, I'm planning on getting married next year. We'll be paying for this all by ourselves, so we have to be cost-conscious.
My fiancée has already started thinking about what to put on her bridal registry, and she told me some of her married friends had signed on with travel agents so they can collect contributions to a honeymoon.
This sounded like a great idea to me, as a honeymoon will not be in our budget most likely. But, I've never dealt with a travel agent, as I like to plan things myself. So signing up with one of them is out of the question for us.
I searched for a similar type of site that collects money for a honeymoon, and I found many (Google "honeymoon fund"). But all of them had exorbitant fees just to donate to the fund, which I found unacceptable.
Then I came across SmartyPig, which is in a beta phase. With this, you can set up a savings account (that currently gives you 4.30% APY) and establish a goal for it (the amount you want to save and the deadline).
Friends can contribute to your goal for just a 2.9% processing fee, which is reasonable. It also requires the owner of the account to make systematic deposits. When the goal is reached, you can take the money saved in the form of a gift card or check.
I set up my account last week. I had a couple of questions, and the customer service has been great so far (the co-founder actually resolved one for me).
Some functionality has been not been available when I needed it, but this is understandable since it's a new company in a beta phase.
Tom Valenti is a marketer and project manager who currently works for a financial institution in New Jersey. Read Tom's blog at http://thriftyhomeowner.blogspot.com or learn more about him at http://tomvalenti.com.
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6% APY Online Checking: Too Good to Be True?
I was pointed today to the "Maximum Earnings Banking" account from Southern Community Bank and Trust, which says it has a 6% APY — basically unheard of these days, especially with all of the rate cuts of the past few months.
Wow - that sounds pretty good. Online bill pay, no maintenance fees, no minimums, and national ATM use.
So what's the catch?
You have to use your debit card at least 10 times per month (not a problem for me, since I use it for everything). You need direct deposit (always a good idea), $100 to open and use e-statements instead of paper ones.
Honestly, I'm not sure if any of those really classify as catches.
But call me skeptical — something doesn't seem right.
Does anyone use this bank and trust? Can you share your experiences and whether or not you recommend it?
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Do You Manage Your Money Online?
Within the last year, there has been a proliferation of interactive money management sites. If you don't know how they work, they basically categorize your income and spending so that you can better track your finances.
Depending on the service, you enter in your own data or can have it scraped from online banking sites you already are signed up with. Kind of like what one would see in Money or Quicken, but online, and often they give advice based upon your data.
For instance, if they see you have a high-interest credit card, they might suggest one with a lower rate. As of now, they all seem to be free of charge.
Some examples: Wesabe, Mint, Buxfer, Geezeo, Billeo, Quizzle. I know I've seen even more. I can't recommend or offer too much individual comment on any of these because I haven't used them enough and, frankly, I don't feel like going through the set up for each one.
I really don't know how anyone decides which ones(s) to use.
The ancestor of this technology seems to be the account aggregators, such as Yodlee. With the explosion of so-called Web 2.0, they've evolved into something more. It's inevitable there will be a shakedown sometime soon, with some collapsing, some merging, maybe some charging, and some being bought by banks or online banking providers.
Until that happens, I plan to sit on the sidelines.
Is anyone using any service like this yet? If so, how has it (or not) helped you?
Tom Valenti is a marketer and project manager who currently works for a financial institution in New Jersey. For more info, visit him at http://tomvalenti.com.
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How PayPal Manages Their Money
Ever wondered what PayPal is doing with your money when you are transferring it, receiving it, or just holding on to it in your account?
Fortune Small Business is taking a look at the online finance site, in reaction to the recent announcement that PayPal will hold some transactions for up to 21 days if it deems them "high-risk."
Any funds PayPal holds for dispersal are automatically deposited in a corporate bank account, which earns interest, according to Paypal representative Amanda Pires. The money is kept there until it's ready for distribution. PayPal, which processes payments for eBay auctions as well as e-commerce transactions from elsewhere on the Internet, counts interest payments on those funds as one of its revenue streams.
So what if you don't want to contribute to PayPal's interest and would rather accrue your own?
PayPal's Pires said accountholders should be aware that they have the power to collect interest for their own use on delayed funds. It's as simple as enrolling in the company's PayPal Money Market Fund, Pires said.
For enrolled accountholders, any funds earmarked for a hold are diverted into the Money Market Fund rather than PayPal's corporate bank account, Pires said. The dividends earned are credited to user accounts on a monthly basis.
I don't have any interest in opening a PayPal money market account, but I understand why and how they manage their money like they do.
It doesn't bother me, but if you're one of the sellers they hit with a 21-day hold on funds, I can understand the frustration.
Fortune Small Business - What PayPal does with your money
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File Your Taxes Online: What's the Best Option?
It seems everywhere I go I'm inundated with solicitations from H&R Block, Liberty, and a slew of local accountants.
It's tax time, they all want my business, and most seem to want me to come into their physical establishments.
Maybe a coupon or promo item would at least make me to consider moving from the online tax filing service I've been using the last few years. Until that happens, I'll stick with H&R's online TaxCut service.
Before starting with TaxCut, I filed using one of the free services the IRS promotes on their site. I must say, TaxCut (and its competitors I quickly researched) are far superior to the couple of free services I had used in the past.
But I do now see that TaxCut and some other higher profile services are now available for free, as well. For those who qualify, that's a nice deal.
How do you file your taxes? Also, let us know what your experiences have been with online tax services.
Loading ...Tom Valenti is a marketer and project manager who currently works for a financial institution in New Jersey. For more info, visit him at http://tomvalenti.com.
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Are You a Rate Chaser? Vote Now.
With the continued drop in rates for online savings accounts, I'm sure a lot of people have considered moving their money around.
But if you've moved your money around a lot recently, you might be a rate chaser.
So, we want to know: are you a rate chaser?
Do you go after the promotional deals? Open up new accounts for .05% higher APY? Move your money around every 3 weeks?
Are you a rate chaser? Let us know in a comment.
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5 Ways My Finances Are on Autopilot
There's nothing more comforting than knowing that most of your financial decisions are taken care of.
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