Are Checking Account Specials Scams?

These days, the shaky economy is forcing banks into taking some extreme measures to attract new
customers. And by extreme, I mean banks are actually offering a variety of new ways for new
customers cash in when they open accounts (yes, that is extreme, considering banks are not the quickest
bunch to part with their money). If you’ve seen these checking account special offers, then you know
how tempting they seem . . . even if they also might seem too good to be true. Are checking account
specials scams? Read on for all you need to know about these offers:

Checking Account Specials

First off, what is meant by a checking account special? Well, I’m sure you’ve seen them all over the
place, especially now that the holiday season is on its way. Banks may offer cash back for deposits,
money or gift certificates for referring a friend, cash rewards for every time you use your debit card,
products like iPods, cameras and GPS units for opening an account, free bonus miles for applying for
a debit card . . . the list goes on and on, and it seems the variety of options is only limited to the banks’
imaginations.

Checking Account Scams

The good news is that most of the checking account specials you see are perfectly legitimate. Banks
aren’t trying to scam people – they’re just trying to gain new customers. Where the “scam” comes in
is on the occasion that you sign up for a checking account, thinking you are guaranteed the special
advertised, only to find that you don’t qualify for the special. This is not necessarily a scam as much
as it is misleading advertising; it can be understandably disconcerting, and there are ways to make sure
you don’t fall into this trap.

How to Protect Yourself

Before you sign on for any new account in hopes of getting in on a special, make sure you get the offer
in writing. What’s more, make sure you understand everything on that paper in front of you. Read all
of the fine print to verify that you will, in fact, qualify for the special after you’ve signed on the dotted
line. If a checking account special doesn’t translate on paper to what is advertised, you then have the
option of moving on to a special that you do qualify for.

Checking account specials are all over the place, and fortunately for you, the customer, they are for
real. Just make sure you shop around and find the right checking account for you before making a
decision, and never choose an account based solely on the prize you might get for signing on. It’s your
hard-earned money you are dealing with, so it should be in a bank you can trust, regardless of any
fancy gadget you might get.

About the Author: Patty Kleen is a full-time writer with a passion for personal finance, saving money,
and avoiding scams. She enjoys using email fax services and other online database sites to streamline
her business and writing processes.

 


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5 Creative Ways to Make Extra Money When Child Support is Sucking You Dry

You love your kids. And you love providing for your kids. But, let’s face it: kids are expensive.
Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to feel that there’s not much left for you after you’re done with the monthly providing. Child support blues got you down? You’re not alone. Even more, you’re not stuck in the empty-pocket rut. Here are five creative ways to make extra money when child support is sucking you dry.

Capitalize on a Hobby

What do you like to do in your spare time? You can make money from virtually any and every type of hobby. Like to write? Start a blog and monetize it. Good at woodworking? Sell your creations. Can’t stop cheering for your favorite team? Join a fantasy football league. Figure out what you like to do, and make it work for you.

Cash in on Collections

Chances are you have a collection of some sort just catching dust in storage. It doesn’t matter what you collect – whether it be action figures, stamps, baseball cards, or potato chips that look like famous people – if you can group it and prepare it for a sale, you can find a buyer. Take advantage of free websites like Craigslist and eBay when advertising your collection for sale.

Have a Garage Sale

When’s the last time you cleaned out the attic or storage unit? If you haven’t done it for years, then you also haven’t needed to use what’s in there for years. You may be sitting on a goldmine without even knowing it. Involve the kids in going through the treasure-trove. They might actually enjoy it (more than you will).

Direct Sales

It doesn’t cost you anything to become a representative for direct-sell companies like Avon, Amway, Univera, and Quixstar. Simply sign on as a direct sales agent, pass out catalogs to your friends, family and coworkers, and send in the orders to make some cash on the side.

Host a Sitting Night

Host a sleepover once or twice a month. Clear out the living room, build a fort, make gallons of Kool-Aid and heat up some cheap frozen pizzas. Earn the world’s best parent designation and make some extra dough by offering other couples who have kids an entire night out – for a fee, of course. Your kids will have a blast (and you will recover – eventually).

You don’t have to work three full-time jobs or become a slave to the grindstone in order to provide for your children financially and have some leftover for yourself. Try one, or all, of these money-making methods to fatten your wallet. You may even have some fun in the process.

About the Author: Patty Kleen is a full-time writer and divorced mother. When she’s not providing for her children, she focuses her writing talents on personal finance, bad credit loans, bankruptcy, and more.

 


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Setting up my savings goal.

Well, I finally got around to setting up an actual savings account (the first one I’ve ever had). Not bad, actually. And for the first time I’ve paid myself first…by putting 1% of my paycheck directly into the savings account.

Granted, that’s not a lot, but I don’t have a lot of wiggle room to work with. My paycheck was about 15-20 hours shorter than it should have been thanks to a slowdown at work. But, it should pick up again soon, and with my second stream of income (the karaoke gig), I should be able to survive the week…if I’m careful and don’t blow money that I don’t need to.

So far, I’ve set an initial goal of $500 in my savings account. I’d like to do that by the end of the year. Four months to go! I’m hoping that I can make that happen somehow.

The income breakdown in my head (because it’s not on paper yet) is like this:

- 1% from Paycheck goes to savings.
- 25% of any web income goes to savings.

Now, that’s not a lot of money, especially since I’ve stopped pursuing the make money online strategy. Of course, that doesn’t mean that it won’t emerge in the future as a significant source of income. Ok, I haven’t completely given up on it, but I’ve shifted my focus to dealing with my personal life rather than trying to make a passive income source. It’ll happen soon enough. But for now, I’m just setting small goals and making sure that my fundamentals are in place.

Do you have any savings goals? What would you recommend that I do about mine? What changes would you make?

 


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It’s time to do some house cleaning.

I was just playing around with some .me domains. Wow. There are so many great ones that nobody has yet…what, you think I’m gonna tell you?

Anyway, this weekend would normally be one that I’d spend with my kids, but I’m afraid that I need to take a break and stop putting things off and really look around and take stock of myself.

My financial state is dismal. My emotional state is worse. My sanity…let’s say it’s not there.

The plan is to find a way to make it where I can not just scrape by, but to survive and possibly even thrive. So I will be looking over my past debts, my current income and bills, and my future projections, setting some new goals (both personal and financial), and trying to figure out who I am and where I’m going.

Should be a fun experience.

 


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Forcing Myself to Save Money

Photo by Alamosbasement

Since starting my new job, I’ve been slowly looking for my pathway to awesome. By that, I mean I’m finally tired of being broke all of the time. There have been many times lately that I have to decide between necessities like auto insurance and rent. Fortunately, I’ve been able to almost make things work except for this past week, where my check was two days short (due to circumstances beyond my control). Because of that, I managed to pay about half of my bi-weekly rent payment and had to forgo the car insurance and getting the brakes worked on (which is a pretty nasty combination…heh).

One of the fundamental problems with my income is that I pay 25% of my bring-home pay in child support. I earn $12 per hour at my job, so that pretty much puts me on a $9 per hour level from the start. Here’s a little rundown of my expenses:

-Child Support: Aprox. $400/month
-Rent: $400/month
-Auto Insurance: $45/month
-Fuel: $120/month (if I cruise around a bit)

My grocery bill fluctuates depending on how I want to do things. I give myself a little bit of flexibility there.

So, here’s how this works:

Total estimated bring-home: $1600
Total estimated expenses: $965

That tells me that I *should* have around $635 left at the end of the month. Somehow, it doesn’t work out that way very often, and I’m panicking about being short on money. Like this week, when my paycheck was about 17 hours short.

I really haven’t done a lot to track my expenses, honestly. I have very few bills and want to put myself in a position where I can feel a bit more comfortable about spending a little bit once in a while. With the recent divorce, I’ve been stressed out a lot. And when I get stressed out, I blow money like a madman. Don’t even ask how fast I blew threw my income tax return…

So how do I make myself save money? Well for starters, I need to cut back a bit on the social life. One would think that for someone who suffers from severe depression and hasn’t gone out with friends in about ten years would need to get out there, and I do. I enjoy going places with my friends, but the problem is that whenever I go out, I spend money. Granted I might not blow a metric buttload of cash in one night, but it does tend to add up. Ten bucks here, twenty there…do that three or four times per week and the well will run dry awful soon. By cutting back to maybe once per week, I will be able to keep a lot of cash in my pocket.

Another thing I’ve started doing lately may seem a bit silly, but many people have done this successfully: putting loose change in a jar. I have an older plastic glass that I use to toss my change in whenever I think about it. Well, I usually keep the quarters in my pocket, but anything else goes in the cup. What does this do for me? Other than giving me a small break from all of the crap I haul around in my pockets on a daily basis, it’s one of those little self-disciplines that I never did learn. But now, I’m getting there. Not to mention, once the glass fills up I’ll have a nice little pile of change. I haven’t decided what I’m going to spend it on, but we will see about that when the time comes.

The third thing I’m trying to do is to stop eating out so often. I like fast food. I’m a fan of the McDouble. But for a while, the only thing I was eating was take out. I’ve noticed that it really puts the hurt on my pocketbook. Not to mention, I’m huge. If I ever want to lose some weight, I had really better start eating better. The solution? Go shopping! I’ve learned that cooking at home lets me eat better food for less money. I mean, why spend $3 for ONE chorizo and egg burrito at Jack In The Box, when I can go to Kroger (with my Kroger card…which I love), spend a little more, but make about 6-8 of them? There is a savings there, and lets face it: my breakfast burritos are freaking awesome.

One day I would like to be able to take a real vacation. I have never done that. I’m 31 now, and the one time that I did take a week off from work, I stayed home and did nothing. I would also like to be able to afford to buy the things I like. Most of what I have was given to me (or I paid for during the course of the divorce), so my bills are relatively low. There’s really no reason that I shouldn’t be able to get a foothold on beating my financial woes.

That is my new goal.

 


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3 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Personal Finance