I must be a bit odd. I prefer to manually enter all my transactions in my journal. I don't want it automated. Any time I've automated it, I have become complacent. I feel, in order to properly manage my finances, there must be some pain. Don't get me wrong, I use SW. I just don't use SW that is automated.
Big Banks Lock Horns with Personal-Finance Web Portals
21–30 of 108 posts
Re: Big Banks Lock Horns with Personal-Finance Web Portals
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why not? I've ditched banks a few times. Checking is a commodity product these days... it's not like a banking relationship matters anymore. Depends on what position you're in, and how you've previously organized your finances. If you still write checks, you have to leave the old account open with enough funds and wait for all of those to clear. If you have things pointing at your bank debit/credit card, you need t…
* Write checks only when necessary. I usually use USPS money orders instead. * Always have recurring payments on a credit card, which you pay off monthly. Bill payments and connected accounts should be minor.
Sure, but those are the kinds of steps you take once you've realized you want to limit how much gets tied to your bank account. Similarly, once you go through the pain once of switching email addresses away from an ISP email address, you might move to a provider-independent address. But in both cases, you might not know that the first time.
Re: Big Banks Lock Horns with Personal-Finance Web Portals
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not? I've ditched banks a few times. Checking is a commodity product these days... it's not like a banking relationship matters anymore. In olden times, it might have been a pain. Now most automatic payments hit a credit card, so you aggregate the account changes at that level. Last time I flipped to get a 1/4 point off my mortgage. I think I had to redirect my utility account and change a few online payment port…
I have switched banks a couple of times too. In all cases, it has been because the bank took advantage of me when I made a mistake. It has always been a variation on this same theme. The last time I changed banks was in 2010. I had made a mistake and I overdrew my account by $5 or so. That was obviously my fault and I should have been on the hook for one overdraft fee. My bank, reordered my transactions and caused me…
The difficultly, strike that. The complexity occurs when you have setup auto payments.
One just has to handle it like any other transitional period.
You open a new account with a new bank or credit union and start funding it. You watch your existing bank account for recurring or auto payments coming out and work to switch them over to the new bank account. You have to maintain some money in the old bank account and possibly keep it open for several months or a year.
Treat the old account as a temporary savings account with enough money to cover any checks or auto payments that might get drawn against it. After you are certain all auto payments have been transferred or you feel safe and confident then you close the account with the old bank.
I primarily use a credit union but I do have a checking account with a regional bank that I use strictly for auto payments, this makes it easy to make sure there's enough money in the account and to transition away in the future should the bank displease me.
Re: Big Banks Lock Horns with Personal-Finance Web Portals
#24I'm leaving SF to travel around the US for 6-12 months, which means I need to switch off the local credit union that I'm currently using. I may as well choose something that will work for the indefinite future, including whereever I land next (it will be in the US).
Any recommendations? I'd prefer an organization that was less culpable for the financial crisis.
Re: Big Banks Lock Horns with Personal-Finance Web Portals
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not? I've ditched banks a few times. Checking is a commodity product these days... it's not like a banking relationship matters anymore. In olden times, it might have been a pain. Now most automatic payments hit a credit card, so you aggregate the account changes at that level. Last time I flipped to get a 1/4 point off my mortgage. I think I had to redirect my utility account and change a few online payment port…
I used to occasionally game banks for their account sign-up bonuses. You quickly learn how to set up your accounts so that it takes minimal effort to switch to something else. A few tips to stay nimble and cover your bases during bank changes: 1) Don't use any bill payment services 2) Any automatic payments you do online, set them up for your credit card if you can (I'd recommend this anyway to take advantage of rewa…
That's basically what I do as mentioned in a comment to a sibling of you comment.
Re: Big Banks Lock Horns with Personal-Finance Web Portals
#26Banks are in a strange kind of transition. For years they acted like a retail operation that treated finance as a consumer product. But actually their purpose in the modern world is as infrastructure, more similar to electricity or water. In that sense their is some similarity to cable companies who are fighting to avoid becoming just a dumb pipe.
Blockbuster thought they were too big to fail too
Re: Big Banks Lock Horns with Personal-Finance Web Portals
#27I'm leaving SF to travel around the US for 6-12 months, which means I need to switch off the local credit union that I'm currently using. I may as well choose something that will work for the indefinite future, including whereever I land next (it will be in the US). Any recommendations? I'd prefer an organization that was less culpable for the financial crisis.
Is your credit union a member of CO-OP? this allows you to bank at any credit union in the nation that is a member. Some stuff can be challenging, like getting a loan, or getting a replacement bank card immediately. I'm living a state away from mine, with very few problems.
Re: Big Banks Lock Horns with Personal-Finance Web Portals
#28If the banks cared they would provide either token-based API like oAuth or at the very least, a read-only password for users to give these sites that aren't fully credentialed. Customers will always want to extract their data.
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Re: Big Banks Lock Horns with Personal-Finance Web Portals
#29If the banks cared they would provide either token-based API like oAuth or at the very least, a read-only password for users to give these sites that aren't fully credentialed. Customers will always want to extract their data.
Completely agree! I think it is ridiculous that financial institutions don't have a read only password for sharing with accountants, tax advisers and other programs.
Re: Big Banks Lock Horns with Personal-Finance Web Portals
#30Banks are in a strange kind of transition. For years they acted like a retail operation that treated finance as a consumer product. But actually their purpose in the modern world is as infrastructure, more similar to electricity or water. In that sense their is some similarity to cable companies who are fighting to avoid becoming just a dumb pipe.
Blockbuster thought they were too big to fail too
Blockbuster didn't have legislative scaffolding and bureaucracy throughout the entire world on its side.