Push the Easy Button For Brokerage Account Shopping

Image via CrunchBaseToday we have a lot of choices where we invest. Whether it's at work with a 401(K), local brokerage, IRA'S or online brokers. Even if you do it yourself and your happy with your broker it always is smart to see what the competition is offering, you may get a better deal and save money.

Bankrate.com just made it easier for you to compare brokerage deals.

You can now compare trading brokerage accounts for free at Bankrate, pitting one companies’ costs and features against another. At a glance, you can see each broker’s:

· Commissions, whether online, phone assisted or broker assisted.
· Initial deposit requirements.
· Maintenance fees.
· Balance to avoid.
· Services and features description.

With big name brokers like ING Direct, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, Merrill Edge and Zecco holdings, you’re just a few clicks away from trading online.

Click here to go to Bankrate.com and check out the Brokerage Account Shopping.

Google Wallet - A Credit Card In Your Phone

Image via WikipediaGoogle, Inc. has debuted an new application called "Google Wallet". This application allows consumers to use their phones to pay for products and services. It would eliminate the use of credit or debit cards. Google Wallet is set to launch this summer and allow the company to join in on the lucrative business of digital credit cards.

All the major cell phone manufacturers are rolling out new handsets that will include the electronics to allow you to pay for groceries, movie tickets, and restaurants by a simple wave of your phone over a digital sensor.

Google is jumping in on this technology with both feet because the profits from handling credit transaction will be a big profit center for the company. Add to that the growing world of local offers and coupons. Services like Groupon and local coupon companies will have a better way to link their products to consumers. Businesses will be well poised to link purchases, digital coupons, and location based advertising to everyone with a smart-phone.

Google said by 2014, it expects purchases made on smart-phones to quadruple to $630 billion dollars. Don't feel bad for Visa and MasterCard, they still will process about $6 trillion worth of credit card transactions annually. But I wouldn't be surprised that they are looking over their shoulder to see an approaching competitor where there wasn't one before.

The way the phone works is that they have something called near-field communication (NFC). This is a radio technology that allows phones to talk to credit card terminals. Using built-in microchips, the phones can conduct digital conversations with credit card reading devices. The phones will allow consumers to use coupons or loyalty cards, pay for goods and receive a digital receipt all within a few seconds.

Thanks to this new service Google will streamline the whole consumer point-of-sale process. The process should benefit the consumer. What's the positives and negatives to this new product.

Positives

• This system carried out further would just about eliminate your purse or wallet completely. No need to carry anything but your phone to go shopping. Why not digitally store your drivers license, AAA card, and health insurance card all in your phone.
• Your coupons and loyalty cards could all be in your phone, eliminating the need to carry those things around.

Negatives

• Google will have your shopping information. Along with your location where you shop. Plus the frequency and time. They will know all your purchases no matter where or when they occur. Whatever you purchase, they will know.
• What if your phone is lost or stolen. You can't do your shopping, you will have to have a credit card or cash as a backup.
• If your battery dies your stranded with no way to pay.

This new technology will take a while to catch on. It seems like just a more difficult way to perform a simple task. Credit cards are just a piece of plastic with a magnetic strip on the back, real simple. It reminds me of the same battle 3-D TV still has, finding  a way to be as easy to watch as regular TV. Sometimes new tech just makes things more complicated.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - What Does It Do? Will It Work?

Image by mdfriendofhillary via FlickrThis week the White House hosted a summit of financial writers and editors at the White House. This event gave 2 dozen financial journalists access to top Obama administration officials. The President even stopped by to give his views on his personal finance beliefs and a brief Q&A.

The meeting centered on the debt ceiling, the housing crisis and the job market. One of the focuses of the current administration is financial education. The recession has brought to the forefront the need for public education and protection from potentially damaging investment products.

President Obama, early in his term, assigned Elizabeth Warren as head of a new federal agency called the "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau"(CFPB). The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) established the consumer bureau. Since then, from scratch, she has been trying to lay out how the agency will function and what it will try to accomplish.

She described the CFPB's key principles as ensuring that when using financial products:

• Prices are clear.
• Risks are clear.
• The ability to compare like products is relatively easy.

If the agency can achieve that, then consumers can ask two key questions:

• Can I afford this product?
• Is it the best deal I can get?

The result of all this, Warren says, is a competitive marketplace -- which should be good for both consumers and businesses. She compares the CFPB with the FDA. Just as the FDA doesn't allow inferior medical products to be sold to the public, the CFPB will see to it that consumers are able to differentiate between good, safe loans and deceptive loans that charge lower prices by burying risk in the fine print. The agency aims to work with consumers and lenders to ensure that financial contracts are understandable, so that markets can work better.

The CFPB has it's own website at www.consumerfinance.gov. There they state the central Mission of the CFPB:

"The central mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans—whether they are applying for a mortgage, choosing among credit cards, or using any number of other consumer financial products."

The 3 goals of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are:

Educate.

An informed consumer is the first line of defense against abusive practices. The CFPB will work to promote financial education.

Enforce.

Like a neighborhood cop on the beat, the CFPB will supervise banks, credit unions, and financial companies, and it will enforce Federal consumer financial laws.

Study.

The consumer bureau will gather and analyze available information to better understand consumers, financial services providers, and consumer financial markets. 

This new agency will take over all the functions from government agencies that used to perform this function before. The agency that did most of these functions before was the Federal Trade Commission(FTC). Their work in financial consumer protection will shut down and move to the CFPB.

Others include:

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)
Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)
National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)
US Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD)
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
The Federal Reserve System

When it's all said and done the CFPB will be a a regulatory agency with unprecedented powers with a broad reach across industries. We will have to wait and see how it will affect consumers and business. But we can be sure that the CFPB will do 3 things:

1. Consumers will be able to finally read the financial disclosure documents on their financial products. Whether it be credit card or mortgages, the terms and conditions will be in clear, easy-to-understand terms that allow consumers to compare offers.
2. The CFPB will examine consumer financial products, not the industries themselves. Previously, regulatory industry's were structured by individual industrys, now they will all be under one roof and the industry the product comes from will not be scrutinized, just the product.
3. Create a transparency on how credit scores affect the terms and conditions of the financial product like mortgages and credit cards. Lenders are required to disclose a score they used in all risk-based pricing notices and adverse action notices beginning July 21, 2011.

The future role of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will something to keep an eye on. 

Here's a video about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

Fraud Alert - A Few Things to Watch Out For When Refinancing your Mortgage

With the recent economic meltdown, millions of people become victims of financial instability across the globe. People have been literally forced into debts and their financial lives have got stuck in the debt mire. Mortgage refinancing can save you from this danger. However, people who are carrying outstanding debt balance, their thought process often get paralyzed and desperation overrides good judgment. As a result, mortgage refinancing scams often take advantage of their desperate situation and put them into further debts. You must have heard the question "mortgage how much can I borrow", well, it is the most crucial question in the current scenario and you should be ready with the answer of this question in order to prevent yourself from mortgage refinancing scams. As, most mortgage refinancing scams are linked with home equity if you don’t pay enough attention to the refinancing procedure of mortgage you might run the risk of loosing your home in future. Read on to know about the most common mortgage refinancing scams and stay away from them in future.

Loan Application

• Mortgage refinancing scammers usually target consumers who have low incomes or bad credit rating or who rushes into signing the mortgage deal without being aware of its consequences. The most common mortgage refinancing scam comes through the application form you send in to a mortgage company. Sometimes, you are encouraged by the refinancing company to write down higher incomes than what you actually make, in order to get the loan amount sanctioned. Such unethical practice can lead you to loose your home because you won’t able to afford the high monthly charges on a month to month basis. As you have declared a higher income amount, you might have to pay different loan amount and rates based on what you declared. Remember, if you put on paper something that you do not really have, it is you who will end up paying for it as the application form does not count. 

Balloon Payment

• Another notorious mortgage refinancing scam is associated with the balloon payment. These Loans are used when an individual is no longer able to pay a mortgage. When you face a mortgage foreclosure you no longer think prudently and a scam lender take advantage of this to make his way to profits. He pretend to be compassionate individual offering mortgage refinancing and lower monthly payments to save you from foreclosure but the actual story is quite different. All you repay each month is the interest fee only and the principal amount is in store which you remain obligated to pay at the end of the loan term. It is referred to as a balloon payment and such refinancing scam is pretty hard to spot. If you fail to pay this amount within a stipulated period of time, you end up losing your home.

Many individuals are there who have been hit by mortgage refinancing scams. Stay alert, go through the mortgage deal thoroughly before signing it and evade falling into such scam traps in future.