I don't know if anyone else has ever tried the financing company called Drivetime. They are a company that allows buyers with bad credit, no credit, and banruptcies to buy a car (like second chance financing). They have cars from about 2001 and newer on their lots and  most of the lots are located in Southern California and Nevada. Most of the sales people are very nice, however w...

I had a relative that recently tried debt consolidation. He wasn't too far into debt where he couldn't pay his bills, but he was getting nowhere fast trying to pay down credit cards. He tried debt counseling/consolidation with a company called Money Management International or MMI.He told me that after calling MMI, they claimed they could reduce the interest rate on a lot of his cards b...

When we first bought our house, I wanted an easy way to pay all or most of our bills.  I figured I would start by having our Nicor (gas) bill come directly out of our checking account.  I went to the Nicor web site and clicked on online bill pay.  Apparently Nicor doesn't directly to online bill pay, they go through mycheckfree.com.  I did some research into mycheckfree....

Prepaid credit cards are a new concept in Canada. Until recently you could only get a prepaid credit card at Bank of Montreal (if you wanted a MasterCard) or Royal Bank (if you wanted a VIsa). Now, stores like Shoppers Drug Mart sell prepaid MasterCard Gift Cards. Vanilla MasterCard is the company that issues the prepaid MasterCards for Shoppers Drug Mart. Why buy prepaid credit cards? Prepaid ...

Once my daughter moved away to college, I was able to begin saving for my own retirement. I took advantage of the 401K plan offered at work for the value of the employer match, but I have a relatively small window of time left to build up a giant nest egg for myself, so I started looking into IRAs to supplement my 401K. My company doctor told me, "Our 401K plan is garbage. Put al...

Today I want to present what could be called a retirement system by financial planner and radio talk show host Ray Lucia. His Bucket's of Money strategy is very straightforward approach to retirement planning with an extra focus on the administration of the retirement plan after retirement, but is applicable to all retirement savers. To access his Buckets of Money Online Planner see the&nbs...

I have been a customer of Banco De Oro for over 3 years already. Currently, I have two accounts with them --- payroll account and a personal savings account. I used to line up in their branch offices, usually after work, until I found out about their online banking facility to which I signed up for immediately.What I like about BDO Internet Banking is that it is so easy to use. They don't h...

Recently we came into some unexpected financial trouble. We decided to get a Payday Loan from ACE Cash Express.  We had dealt with them before and knew we could get quick service from them.During our first experience with ACE we only borrowed $200.  The finance charge was $20 per $100 dollars borrowed as long as the money was paid in full by a certain date.  We paid the loan off ...

I moved down to Florida from Michigan almost two years ago right after I graduated college.  It's hard to believe I have lived here in Florida for that long already away from my family.  Time sure has flown by.  I realized when I got down here I had to grow up, become a big girl, and get renter's insurance for my apartment.  I think it's definitely need...

Since Bank of Montreal (BMO) offered online banking to its customers some umpteen years ago, I could count on one hand how many times I've set foot into one of their branches to see a teller. If my computer could dispense cold, hard cash like an ATM, I'd never go to a branch to use the drive thru ATM again! Some of the services offered online include bill payment, view bills online with...

I have had my Chase Free Checking Account for about 3 years now.  I was reluctant to get this account in the beginning because of all the negative stuff I had heard about this bank.After some time, I felt pretty good about having this account.  It offered the services I needed.The problem with all banks is guarding against insufficient funds chagres. Chase is no better at that, but as...

I do prefer bringing with me my credit cards and my ATM card during shopping or when I am out for buying. It is more handy and manageable as compared bringing cash with me of course aside from other benefits it will give me in using it. I opened this BPI Express Teller Savings account two years ago and I am still keeping it. The account provides several other benefits like: access over thousand...

When I was negotiating a deal on a new 2007 Ford Focus from the dealership last September, I told the pressuring salesman exactly what I could comfortably afford for a monthly car payment: $150. I had a sizable cash down payment to work with, 50% of the negotiated car price, but if he couldn't figure out how to keep that financed monthly payment within my own budgeting c...

This is one of Vanguards best funds. It is considered to be a balanced fund which has about 2/3 of the portfolio in stocks and the other 1/3 in fixed income investments as in bonds. It is one of investment adviser Morningstar's favorite sleep at night funds. I am not surprised at this as the funds long term bear market rank is better than 86% of its peers. This fund has lost money in only 3...

Wife and I maintain a savings account (ATM card) with Bank of the Philippines Island or BPI. It is one of the biggest banks here in the Philippines that really offers plenty of products and services. We got one savings account, ATM only no passbook, and initially paid Php3,000.00 and this will serves as our maintaining balance. If we go lower than this at any given time in a month we will be ch...

I was able to get a personal loan from Citi Financial to pay off some credit cards and my university tuition. The Citi Financial agent made it very easy to apply and explained, in detail each aspect of the application. They also had easy repayment options so I could pay off the loan early and without penalty. I needed collateral for the loan so I put my car up. The term of the loan was 48 month...

Another source of personal loan we came across through a phone call was CitiFinancial. An agent called my husband and asked to try their offer. The procedure was very simple. We just need to fax the required documents and wait for the result of the review for about a week. Once approve, the xerox of the previously faxed documents as well as the post dated checks (PDCs) for the monthly amortizat...

This is a great mutual fund by the folks at Vanguard. For anyone who knows about this fund family they realize that the one thing that Vanguard does probably better than the rest is keep the expense ratio's of their funds very low. They are also no load funds.  Huge benefits for the investor. This particular GNMA fund has been one of the best that I know of over the years. The expense ...

My darling husband had a fondness for ATM's and cash. I swear the big guy thought the ATM was his own personal slot machine. Then one day, I heard him rummaging round online, and nearly passed out. Here he is with a befuddled grin happily applying for Check Into Cash. When I asked him why on earth he wanted this abomination, he said, "well I can get an advance, won't touc...

My very first bank account was with Bank of Nova Scotia some 15 years ago and believe it or not, I still have that account open. I use this account solely for repaying my student loans so it isn't my regular chequing account. I was glad when they offered internet banking services as it would mean that I no longer had to go in to a branch to do my banking. The icing on the cake was when they...