I’m sure there are more than just five. Banks can be complex, greedy, shameful and also helpful in most instances if you have a long term relationship with your bank. But be careful, they will snatch your wig off the first chance they get if charging you fees are involved. People need to begin to take responsibility for their financial health and stop depending on others or an imaginary future income; work with what ya got people. Don’t be a big hot mess financially.

Here is an article about five secrets the banks really don’t want you to know.

Laura Rowley Money & Happiness

Five Secrets Your Bank Doesn’t Want You to Know

by Laura Rowley

Posted on Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 12:00AM

Banks are squeezing customers with historically high fees and penalties, from overdraft charges to account service fees to new surcharges on foreign debit transactions.

But the pressures that have prompted the fee war with consumers started well before the financial meltdown, according to Jo Preuninger, a former management consultant who spent more than a decade in the consumer banking arena.

I asked Preuninger for a little history, as well as some of the tricks of the trade that banks would prefer to keep secret.

Number 5 is real special. If you’re paying for things with so many different payment vehicles, it can become impossible to keep track of what you are spending. Stop doing that, and keep a running log of all your expenditures, keep every receipt and log it in your journal as soon as possible after your purchase. Don’t let someone else control your money, do that shit yourself.

Secret #5: Banks want you to enjoy the “advantages” of paying with credit, debit, check and cash — because it will make you more likely to lose track of your money.

“One of most dangerous things going on with consumers is they are not paying attention to the variety of ways they are paying. They are balancing money back and forth because it’s too hard to account for,” Preuninger says. “If you pay seven different ways, you’ve just added complexity to your life. Consumers shouldn’t say to the bank ‘you’re responsible to tell me what I’m doing with my money.’”

But more banks are moving in that direction. PNC Bank, for instance, launched an account called Virtual Wallet that presents account information in calendar form, focused between today and the account holder’s next payday. A “danger day” appears on the calendar in red if the account is at risk of an overdraft. The user can either move bills later in the month, or shift money immediately from the savings portion of the account at no charge (the account does it automatically if the consumer doesn’t). Statements are only available online and the bank charges 50 cents per check for writing more than three a month.

Best bet? Simplify. Get a free checking account with no fees and a low minimum balance requirement, pay major household bills online, and then stick to cash. You’ll think twice about purchases, and avoid getting caught in the widening web of bank fees.

Read the rest of the article here.

As always, be well

As always, be well CF “Kindness in words creates confidence, kindness in thinking creates profoundness, kindness in feeling creates love.” — Lao Tzu Watch me on Youtube