There are still many homeowners in the nation struggling with foreclosures and doing what they can to prevent foreclosure on their homes. Unfortunately, as with many other things involving desperate times, there are less-than-formidable people ready and willing to take advantage of a homeowner’s desperation.

Not On the Up and Up
Companies that are offering loan modification assistance to those homeowners in foreclosure trouble are also typically offering a world of trouble to those already having a rough time financially. Many consumers are contracting with such companies in the hopes of getting serious help. They are paying sizable upfront fees to get help with their mortgage, only to find the company has done nothing in the way of help but has run off with their money. Consumers who then try and contact the company are greeted with disconnected phone numbers or automated voice machines that offer no valuable assistance.

On The Hunt
Sadly, many such companies are known to review foreclosure notices in the newspaper and approach homeowners they know are in trouble and facing foreclosure. The company then promises to negotiation with the lender to get lowered interest rates, remove late fees and penalties, have past due payments forgiven, or lock in a fixed rate on a variable loan. The promises all sound good to the consumer who is willing to try anything to save their homes. The reality is that these companies charge an upfront fee and never follow through on any of their promises – leaving the consumer out more money and still in danger of losing their home.

Bad Odds
According to experts, most lenders would find it in their own best interest to foreclose on your home rather than modify your loan terms. A very small percentage (less than 10) of consumers are actually able to make the renegotiation work in their favor. In fact, most banks do not even get to make the decision whether to approve a loan modification or not. The original investors are the only ones who can make that kind of call.

Experts also said that homeowners who are in danger of foreclosure should not give up on the idea of working with the lender during times of financial hardships. They say you should still contact the lender directly and discuss your situation in order to find options to help you keep your home. You can do this on your own and avoid any third-party that claims they can do a better job than you can. It will only cost you money you don’t have and more financial problems in the long run if you do contact outside agencies that promise to stop your foreclosure.

The banking industry has evolved over the years and online banking is becoming more and more popular for busy consumers. Whether you decide to work with a large, well known brick and mortar bank that offers online services or a virtual bank which operates entirely via the Internet, you should compare certain features to ensure you are getting the maximum benefits possible.

• Convenient- Most people do not relish the thought of spending hours tracking, managing and balancing their finances. A good online bank will offer a website that is easy to navigate and tools that are convenient to use. Top banks offer tools which help users manage their budget, view recent transactions and warn account holders of possible security threats. The easier it is to use these tools the more likely users are to stay on top of their finances.

• Fees- Know and understand what the fee structure is for transferring money, online bill pay and minimum balance requirements. Remember if you are using an online bank as your primary financial institution you will be moving money in and out frequently to pay bills or contribute to various savings accounts. Compare the fees from each bank you review and look for a bank that offers low or ideally no fees for frequent transactions.

• Accounts- A real benefit of using online banking services is having all of your accounts in one place. Your bank should offer the option of opening different accounts beyond checking and savings such as IRA’s, money market accounts or health savings accounts and allow easy fund transfers between the accounts. If you have to use several different banks to manage all of your accounts, it becomes more time consuming and difficult to manage.

• Access- One of the disadvantages of online banking may present itself when accessing or depositing your money. When considering banks, ask yourself how will I deposit money into my account and where can I access ATM’s for easy withdrawal? You do not want to pay ATM fees each time you access your cash or wait several days (weeks) for money to appear once deposited.

• Communication- You should always have the option to talk to a “real” person about your accounts. Who do you contact if you have questions, problems or need other assistance with your accounts? Does the bank have knowledgeable customer service representatives who can assist you 24 hours a day? You don’t want to find yourself in need of an immediate answer only to discover you have to wait days for a reply.

Using online banking services can streamline your finances and make the task of managing your finances less stressful and time consuming. Compare features and services to ensure you select the best bank for your financial needs.

IndyMac Bank was sold in March. The new owners have named the bank OneWest Bank. Liquid Certificates of Deposit offered through OneWest Bank are available nationally. They happen to call the product “Online Keep Your Options Open CD“, which isn’t exactly catchy, but gives you a good idea of the liquidity of the product just the same.

Liquid Certificate of Deposits

To open this certificate of deposit, you need to have a minimum of $5,000 and agree to keep your money in the “keep your options open CD” for at least a year - although there are some nice features that make this a liquid CD, including the ability to make up to two penalty free withdrawals during the course of the selected term. You receive a 2.00% fixed-rate APY, which is not among the highest available rates for CD products of 1 year terms, but it’s still a reasonable offer which is probably counter-acted by the ability to make two withdrawals without penalty if you need to - and the ability to make additional deposits. While you hold the liquid certificate of deposit with OneWest Bank, you have the option to make additional deposits at any time, as long as they are at least $1,000 and keep your principal balance at $100,000 or less.

OneWest Bank also offers an Online 2 Year Flexible CD and an Online Raise Your Rate CD which are considered liquid, but are not quite as flexible as the Keep Your Options Open CD. You cannot make additional deposits or penalty-free withdrawals with either of the other liquid online certificate of deposit products at OneWest Bank. The interest rates on both are slightly higher than the Keep Your Options Open CD, in exchange for having less flexibility. The Online 2 Year Flexible CD currently has a rate of 2.45% APY, while the Raise Your Rate CD has a rate of 2.10% APY.

Regular Certificates of Deposit

If liquidity is not what you’re looking for, OneWest Bank also offers competitive online CD rates for regular certificate of deposit products. Their most competitive interest rates are the 60 month CD for 3.65% APY with a minimum deposit of $5,000 and the 12 month CD with 2.25% APY and a minimum $5,000 deposit.

Like all regular CD’s, all OneWest Bank regular certificate of deposits impose early withdrawal penalties if you take your money out before the term ends. You have a 7 day grace period at maturity from which you can withdraw the money or start a new CD.

If you happen to live near a California OneWest Bank Branch, you can get better certificate of deposit rates than they provide for their online CDs - 2.00% APY on a 6 month CD, 2.5% APY on a 2-year CD and 3.75% APY on a 5-year CD.

During the financial turmoil all over the nation, consumers still have to be worried about falling victim to the increasing amount of scams in addition to worrying about staying on track with their personal finances. Due to the increasing rate in the number of home foreclosures, many consumers are looking to get help and at that point they are usually in a desperate situation. It is these vulnerabilities that leave consumers open to the predatory people who are looking to take their money while promising to save their home. They post guarantees to cease foreclosure on the internet, television and in the newspapers. Out of desperation, many people will do anything to save their family’s home but end up getting taking for a ride. The con agency takes your money and becomes invisible and you end up losing your home anyway.

How To Spot The Unscrupulous People
Con artists today have a big advantage with technology. There are many ways to make their “company” look legitimate and official. Keeping tabs on what’s real and what isn’t is no easy task. One red flag should be companies that name their company or use a URL address that is similar to the various governmental programs available set up to help homeowners. Some even go so far as to say they are affiliated with the governmental assistance.

Here are a few tips for evaluating different loan modification assistance companies:

• If you are contacted by phone, do not hesitate to ask for a call back number, which can help you confirm the companies identity when you call them back. If the representative declines to give you that number, hang up and do not divulge any personal information.

• By phone, email, or mail, if you are asked to pay upfront fees or give out personal financial information, it’s a big red flag. Legitimate companies would never ask you for any of this information without the proper paperwork or signed agreement.

• When reviewing websites, look for URL addresses that end in .gov. Even if a site has the word “government” or other related terms in their address, does not mean they are legitimate.

• You should never have to pay for assistance. There are HUD approved counseling agencies that offer free advice and assistance with preventing home foreclosures.

Keep in mind that the marketing tactics scam companies employ can be very good and easily misleading. They are very aware of how impatient and desperate people are to keep from going into foreclosure and they will capitalize on that desperation in every way they can. The money you are handing over will be stolen instead of used for saving your home. Visit a legitimate agency for help or check out the Obama administration’s Make Home Affordable website for more information about saving your home.

The Green Panda Treehouse posted the Carnival of Personal Finance #211.  In addition to including our article about why automating finances doesn’t always pay, there are a number of excellent blog posts from the personal finance bloggers out there.  Here are a few we like:

• Deposit Accounts discusses and definesin What are Annuities?
• InsureBlog has the latest information in HSA Update: Early Summer Edition
• Miss Bankrupt shares her on list on What not to buy at Dollar Store.
• Fiscal Fizzle reviews Covey’s principles in 7 Habits of Personal Finance.
• American Consumer News wants to make sure you Know Your Rights if You Are In Debt.

The eSavings Time Deposit is offered through Amboy Direct, the online version of Amboy Bank from New Jersey, featuring a reasonable 2.35% APY for savings of $10,000 or more and 1% APY for $100 to $9,999.  You can open the time deposit with a small minimum of just $100 and you are required to leave your money in the savings for a 12 month term.  If you would like to make additional deposits to the eSavings Time Deposit you can do so within the first six months of opening your eSavings Time Deposit, up to a maximum balance of $100,000.  Your interest rate is guaranteed throughout the twelve month term.  The only other stipulation is you can’t open an eSavings Time Deposit with money you already have saved with Amboy Direct.

It’s not in your best interest to save money in an eSavings Time Deposit if you don’t think you can leave the money untouched for at least 12 months.  If you withdraw your money before the 12 month term, you will pay a penalty equivalent to 3 months of nterest.  When making a withdrawal from an eSavings Time Deposit, you cannot withdraw just a part of the money - they require that you withdraw the full amount, and the enire balance is subject to the early withdrawal penalty.

The eSavings Time Deposit is available nationally.  They have an online application available on their Certificate of Deposits page.  Deposits and add-on deposits to the eSavings Time Deposit need to be done through ACH (electronic transfer) from a checking account held at any other, non-Amboy Direct bank.  The interest rates for eSavings Time Deposits lock in when the application is submitted.

This Time Deposit (CD) will be converted to the basic eSavings account unless you contact Amboy Direct and ask them to renew your Certificate of Deposit.  So if you are not interested in having an eSavings account with Amboy Direct, you’ll want to be sure to contact the bank for renewing your CD or withdrawing your money upon maturity.

Most certificate of deposit products require much higher minimums.  The Amboy Direct eSavings Time Deposit makes it possible to open your account with just $100.  During your first six months you can continue to deposit to the account to build it up and earn more interest.

Amboy Direct and Amboy Bank is FDIC insured up to the regular deposit limits.  Bankrate gives the financial institution 4 stars.

The United Central Bank, a financial institution with both offline and online capabilities, offers a variety of banking products with industry competitive rates, from money market accounts to certificate of deposits and installment savings accounts. Some of the rates have dropped a bit from May’s published rates, however they are still competitive with most of the banks offering the same products.

As of June 2009, the following competitive rates are in effect for the following United Central Bank deposit products:

• Certificate of Deposits: a 12 month Certificate of Deposit offers 2.4%. 6 month CD offers 2.15%.
• Super Saver Installment Certificate of Deposit: 1 to 5 years is 3.30%
• Global Savings Account: $25,000 to $50,000 offers 2%; while a $50,000 or more is 2.5%
• Global Money Market Account: $5,000 to $75,000 is 2.39%, while deposits over $75,000 and up to a maximum of $300,000 receive 2.59%

Certificate of Deposits are available as IRAs for terms that are 12 months and longer.

There is an online application which is available to anyone in the United States which can be used to open some of the accounts online, instead of finding a physical bank branch. Unfortunately, not all products can be opened using the online application at this time, but the list is growing. The online application can currently be used to open a Global Money Market Account, a 12 month IRA Certificate of Deposit, and a 12 or 36 month Certificate of Deposit.. The website does not provide a full list of funding options for opening and funding new accounts, and a customer service representative wasn’t very knowledgeable of the topic either. The customer service representative said you can write a check to fund or open an account with United Central Bank,, but that she wasn’t sure if you could fund them electronically or not. Once you fill out the online application, you receive an email with instructions for funding the account.

United Central Bank also offers small business loan programs, business banking, and free bill pay.
You can also open a United Central Bank account at any of their branches, if you prefer to open your bank accounts in person rather than over the internet. There are United Central Bank branches located in select cities within Texas, California, Virgina, Georgia and Maryland. BaeurFinancial gave the bank 3.5 stars in May 2009, while Bankrate gave the bank 3 stars in December of 2008. United Central Bank is a FDIC member, since 1984.

Many financial experts agree that automating your payments, bank deposits, and investments makes great financial sense, it isn’t always the case with all of your bills. Of course, the theory behind it that what you don’t touch you can’t spend. While in theory, that theory makes sense. You can certainly build up a nice 401k account or your savings account by automating such deposits but there are some areas where automating could cost you.

Automating your bill payments and savings deposits essentially means that you set up bill pay through your bank or through your creditor and each monthly payment is automatically deducted from your account on the due date you set. This is certainly a convenience to paying your bills on time each month which is essential for good credit but there are also some drawbacks. The number one being that if you are ignoring your monthly bill statements, you could be missing out on some savings.

Here are some things to consider when you set your bills on autopilot:

Your Utilities
If you are just paying for electricity, cable and phone month after month, you may be missing out. Looking over each of you bills each month gives you the opportunity to look for errors that can be corrected in your favor. You may also be missing out on better deals if you are not looking at the competition.

Insurance
You likely could be qualified to receive different discounts on your insurance bills every few months but if you aren’t asking for them, you might not get them. Check in with your insurance agent every three months or whenever there is a change in your situation. You might be able to reduce your payments and save a lot of money. If you are just paying automatically, you’ll probably forget to stay in touch.

Cell Phone Plans
In the cell phone industry, there seem to be new deals and upgrades every day. Although those deals usually require a renewed contract, they can often reduce the cost of your phone bill, get you a new phone for no cost, and even add additional features to your cheaper plan.

Renewable Services
There are occasions where you sign up for services that require you to enter your credit card or bank information and the monthly charges automatically renew and are deducted from your account. Many times the companies that offer this payment plan rely on you forgetting about them and thus you continue service and generate them tons of revenue. Whenever you sign up for something like this, make a list and keep track of what is automatically drawn from your account. Chances are good you stop using the services but keep paying for them long after. Even if it’s just $10 a month, in a year’s time it adds up to $120. You can find somewhere else to spend that money.

Automatically paying bills is convenient but in our busy lives we tend to forget a lot of what is going on behind the scenes. If you do use auto pay for your bills, make sure you keep tabs on them each month and at least look over the statements you are receiving. Nothing is fail-safe and mistakes can be made. Unfortunately it is your wallet that will suffer in the face of these mistakes.

Not everyone is quick to rush out an buy the latest software or gadget to handle their own personal finances. These people just might have the right idea. Spending a ton of money you don’t necessarily have in the first place just to manage your own money may not be the best way to remain frugal or financially smart. So for those who are not tech-savvy or who can not afford to get the technology claiming to make financial management as easy as 1-2-3, here are some was to keep track of your cash while saving some of it at the same time.

Put It In Writing
One of the most common and useful pieces of advice concerning personal finance is tracking your spending. Typically, it is advised that you keep a pocket-sized notebook on hand at all times to make tracking more efficient. Since you are already using a notebook and a pencil to deal with your finances, take it a bit further when you are ready to create a new budget and purchase an inexpensive notebook or ledger that you can use to write down all of your bills, due dares, expenses, and other financial obligations each month. You can also keep a page to re-write all of you expense spending and get a clearer picture of how much you are spending each month and where you can make some cuts. A more traditional pen-to-paper method can help you keep it simple and inexpensive, but most importantly it will allow you to keep tabs on your cash.

Retain Your Receipts
If you can get in the habit of consistently asking for receipts, even if you pay cash, you will have a better history of what you are spending until you can sit and write it down. Receipts will help you keep track of the date you made the purchase, what the purchase entailed, and the total cost of the purchase. It can also help you to mark on each receipt what category the expense falls under so when it comes time to go over your budget, you’ll know how much spending you are doing for all different categories such as entertainment, bills, food, and the like. The key to making this an effective method of saving money is to keep all of your receipts in a designated location, regularly writing down the information contained on the receipts, and of course, remembering to ask for a receipt each time you spend money. Otherwise, this method can quickly become overwhelming and ineffective.

Utilize Statements
This may not be an effective method for all types of expense tracking but if you are prone to using your credit card for all your spending, you can take the monthly statements and notate them with individual categories. You can total each statements and have a good idea of what you are spending on each category. This will make it easier to make the difficult decisions of what to cut out spending-wise to save your budget. This will help you to also create a new budget if you haven’t yet started one.

Whether you are a first time home buyer or an experienced investment property buyer, everyone needs to invest in a home inspection. While some people may feel paying someone else to do what appears to be a simple once over of the home is a waste of money nothing could be farther from the truth. Purchasing a home is a big investment and should not be taken on without fully understanding your financial obligations in the long term. Here we will cover why getting a home inspection is a must for anyone investing in a residential property.

What is a home inspection?

A home inspection is simply a visual examination of the structure and systems that operate within the home. This inspection is preformed by a professional home inspector who will examine the roof, attic, insulation, walls, ceilings, windows, doors, foundation, floors, basement and structural components. In addition to examining the structure, your home inspector will look at the plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling systems. At the end of the inspection the inspector will prepare a report for you to review outlining his findings.

What is NOT covered?

Remember that your home inspector can only report what he/she sees. This means they cannot normally cover issues such as termites or pests, engineering issues or problems that are otherwise concealed. Since your home inspector can only examine and report on things in the house, if you are purchasing appliances that are not already attached, they would not fall within the scope of the inspection. Your inspector is there to give you an idea of the home’s structural integrity, again based on what is visible. They cannot advise how much repairs will cost or predict future problems outside of the information available at the time of inspection.

Why is it important to have a home inspection?

Paying for a home inspection should be considered an investment in your future. Since a professional home inspector is trained to look for issues that you might otherwise overlook, they may spot problematic areas that suggest past damage or predict future issues. Being armed with this information before you close on the property gives you the opportunity to discuss repairs or problems with the seller who may be willing to make repairs before you take over ownership of the home. In some cases your inspector may be able to spot problems that could potentially lead to very costly repairs in the future. Knowing this in advance allows you to make an informed decision as to whether or not your dream home could potentially turn into a nightmare.