Last Thursday, I opened an Ally Bank 9-month No Penalty CD account. However, due to some errors in the process, I ended up opening two accounts, not just one as I wanted, each with an initial deposit of $56,000. Since I don’t have that much money in my account and Ally Bank said they can’t help me cancel the transfer, I called Bank of America immediately after initiating the transfers and paid $30 to put a stop order on the Ally Bank ACH transfers. I don’t want my bank account show a negative balance and to be charged any fee if that happens.

Then last night when I logged into my BofA account, I saw what I really hate to see: a negative balance of $51K, but it was not what I expected $110K. Among those pending transactions, there are two $56K withdrawals and one $56K deposit. Apparently, the stop order didn’t work. I can see where those two withdrawals came from, but couldn’t understand why there’s also a credit. So I called BofA again. After talking to a CSR, whose explanation didn’t make any sense to me, I spoke with a supervisor. She said since those transactions are still pending, she didn’t know much about them either and told me to wait a couple of days when the transactions settle to get an idea. Well, I don’t think I need anybody’s help to figure out what those transactions are if they already settled because at that time each transaction has a description tell me exact what it is. When I asked the supervisor the possible source of the credit, she said maybe the bank puts the credit in because I don’t have enough money in my account. But that’s also weird. If the bank can put $56K in my account, why can’t they put $112K to cover both withdrawals? The supervisor didn’t have anything more to say except asking me to wait.

Since I had my first bank account 13 years ago, I never had negative balance on my account, not even once. I always make sure I have enough money in it to cover our everyday expenses. Now that I have some -$51K in my account for the first time, I want to know what will happen next time. The manager told me I probably will be charged a $35 overdraft fee for each withdrawal until the account is replenished.

$35 for each withdrawal? This couldn’t have happened at a worse time because for years, I have scheduled to make nearly a dozen mutual fund, DRIP stock, and 529 plan investments on the fifth of every month, all withdrawing from my BofA account. In addition to the three $56K transactions, there are also a bunch of small withdrawals on my account because of these investments. If I have to pay $35 for each of them, I could lose hundreds of dollars in this mess

The first thing I did this morning when I woke up was checking my account again. While it still shows the same amount of negative balance, one thing did become clear: the $56K credit didn’t come from the bank (it’s quite naive to think the bank actually did that, isn’t it). It’s my own money. What happened was after I told BofA to stop those two transfers last week, I arranged to transfer the money to Dollar Savings Direct instead because I don’t want Ally Bank to have my money any more after what happened. That transaction appeared to be cleared on Monday, but somehow BofA took the money back. At the same, DSD also sent me a message saying that transfer failed. The two Ally Bank transfers, however, are still there.

As the last thing I wanted to do to stop the damage, I called Ally Bank today to cancel one of the CD accounts I opened and transfer the money back to BofA. Of course, I had to go over my story again with the CSR. They said they can do that, even without having to pay the penalty (because the account is opened for less than 6 days, so it’s not penalty free).

Now I can only hope this whole mess go away.

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What a Mess!

The bank had run a few similar promotions in the past and from what I can see, the promotions were quite successful in generating interests. The yield of WTDirect savings account is currently at 1.76% APY, which hasn’t changed for more than three months (therefore, the rate is much more stable than rates of other banks). The rate isn’t the highest for sure, but it beats easily rates of other banks such as FNBO Direct, ING Direct, and HSBC Direct. The only drawbacks is that WTDirect requires a minimum balance of $10,000 in order to earn that interest rate. The yield is 0.15% APY for balance below $10,000. If like promotions the bank had before, then at least $10K is required to earn the bonus.

Right now, there isn’t much details on exactly how much bonus you can earn from the promotion, but it will depend on the amount of initial deposit, as in previous promotions. To earn the bonus, you must open and fund your account before July 31 and the money must remain in the account for at least three months (until October 30, 2009). If all the conditions are met, the bonus will be credited into your account by November 20, 2009.

Update: Here’s how much you can get from the promotion, depending on your initial deposit:

• Deposit and balance of $10,000: $25 bonus
• Deposit and balance of $20,000: $50 bonus
• Deposit and balance of $30,000: $75 bonus
• Deposit and balance of $40,000: $100 bonus
• Deposit and balance of $50,000 or more: $150 bonus

There’s no promo code for this offer. To get up to $150 free money from WTDirect, simply use this link to open an account.

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In addition, the bill also presents investors an opportunity to profit from carbon emission trades because, basically, the ACES establishes a carbon emission cap-and-trade program which essentially makes carbon dioxide emission a commodity that can be traded. The cap is the target to reduce GHG emissions by 17% by 2020 and the trade is to create a market for carbon emission allowances that allows polluters turn pollution cuts into revenue as the market will let them trade their allowances (the less they emit GHGs, the more allowances they have) for profits.

Even though currently there isn’t a marketplace in the U.S. for corporates to trade carbon emission credits, that could change if ACES becomes the law. Nonetheless, there are a few options available for investors to trade carbon emissions. Hopefully, one day there will be a tradable U.S. carbon credit plan as well.

iPath Global Carbon ETN (GRN)

iPath Global Carbon ETN (GRN) (learn more about exchange-traded notes) tracks the Barclays Capital Global Carbon Index Total Return (”BGCITR”), an index that is designed to “measure the performance of the most liquid carbon-related credit plans and is designed to be an industry benchmark for carbon investors.” BGCITR’s objective is to provide exposure to the global price of carbon emission credit. It is composed of only two carbon-related credit plans that are currently available in the carbon emission market:

• European Union Emission Trading Scheme Phase II (EU ETS )
• Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

with the European plan making up 79.35% of the index and 20.65% for CDM. As new carbon-related credit plan being developed (maybe a new plan will come out of the Act), they will be incorporated into the BGCITR index to broaden its coverage. The index’s composition is adjusted annually.

iPath GRN are senior, unsubordinated, unsecured debt securities issued by Barclays Bank. The ETN has an yearly fee of 0.75% (investors fee is calculated as the yearly fee times the principal amount of securities times the index factor). GRN was introduced on June 24, 2008 and will mature on June 24, 2038.

GRN’s YTD return is -5.97% and 1-year return -40.23%.

AirShares EU Carbon Allowances Fund (ASO)

ASO is an exchange-traded fund launched by XShares Advisors LLC on March 31, 2009. The fund invests in future contracts for European Union Allowances (EUAs) traded under the EU ETS scheme mentioned above. The objective of ASO is to provide investors with investment results that correspond to “the performance of a basket of exchange traded futures contracts of EUAs.

Even though ASO is an ETF, it doesn’t track an index like most other ETFs do. Rather, it is a commodity pool that is passively managed. The fund’s portfolio consists of a basket of up to four listed December EUA futures contracts that will expire in December 2009 through December 2012. Each contract provides for delivery of 1,000 EUAs at a specified price (however, AirShares don’t take physical delivery of the EUA contracts). In addition, ASO also holds long positions in a portfolio of ECX CFI futures contracts listed on the ICE Platform.

Since its inception, ASO has a 1-month return of 16.75% and YTD return -24.63%. The fund charges 0.85% management fee and it’s rebalanced annually by replacing expiring contracts with contracts of later expiration dates.

*Stock chart from INO MarketClub

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Trade Carbon Emissions with ETFs

The breakdown of the net worth calculation for June is as follows:

• Credit card balance(++++): Our total credit card balance in June increased rather significantly percentage wise. At the end of the month, we had $3,778.97 charged on our credit cards, an increase of $315.29, or 9.10%, from May. The increase in spending is related to a few minor projects that we did on our house last month before putting it on the market, which I think is worth it. Since now I am working in Virginia, I expect our spending in the next couple of months to be higher than usual, hopefully not by too much.
• Cash(++++): For a second month in a row, our savings in checking and savings accounts increased by $6,654.42, or 7.49%, in June to $95,461.33. Last month, I finally opened an Ally Bank Savings Account after considering whether I should do it or not for weeks. However, I wasn’t very happy with the bank when I was trying to open another CD account a couple of days ago. At the end, I didn’t move any more money to the account as I planed to do. Most of my savings is now back to Dollar Savings Direct. After all these trouble opening the account, I am very disappointed it ended like this. Maybe one day, I can still use the bank, but not now.
• Taxable accounts(—): As I was busy with job interviews and selling our house last month, I didn’t add any new money in broker accounts and didn’t buy any new stock in June either and my existing stock investments didn’t do well as the market was struggling a little bit (even though finished the quarter with the most gain in 10 years). The only new investment in taxable account last month was Exxon Mobile stock that I bought through DSPP program at ComputerShare. I scheduled the purchase in May, but it only started last month. For June, our taxable investments in brokerage accounts and mutual fund companies lost $2,633.59, or 1.05%, to a total of $246,728.44.
• Retirement accounts(++): Relatively speaking, our retirement investments did a little better, at least they ended the month in positive territory. For the month, the retirement accounts gained $3,987.31, or 1.78%, to reach a total of $227,443.85. Again, no other new money was added to those accounts last month except 401(k) contributions.
• 529 plans(+++): The gain in our investments in 529 accounts last month is the highest among investment accounts, percentage wise. On June 30th, the total market value of 529 accounts was $19,833.85, up $855.55, or 4.67%, from May.
• Bonds(+): I am still buy $100 I-bond every month, just to keep the only bond investment outside retirement accounts going. For the bond part, the gain in June was $128.96, or 83%, to a total of $15,733.64.

Year-to-date, our net worth has increased $130,628.53, or 27.63%. Year-over-year, the net gain is $34,993.56, or 6.16%. It’s the first time we saw year-over-year gain in a long, long time.

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June 2009 Score Card — Part I: Net Worth

And yes, the kids enjoyed it very much.

Weekend Readings

• 10 Things to Tell a Graduating High School Senior
• Save Your Money By Paying Yourself Last
• Planning To Declare Financial Independence
• The Pros and Cons of Joining a Local Food Co-op
• Wealth Creation: Is it a Myth?
• Common Q & A about Financial Coaching
• Mortgage Pre-Approval When Buying a House
• 12 Tasks for Your Mid Year Financial Checkup
• One Simple Way To Get Started Investing in Stocks
• The Fascinating World Behind Credit Cards And Fraud Detection
• Credit Card Rates and Usury: Where is the Line?
• Negotiation Tips For Beginners – A Real Life Example Of How I Saved $150 With Just A Few Questions

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Weekend Linkage – July 5, 2009

To get the bonus, you will need to register with the bank first. Information needed for the registration include last name, last 4 digits of checking account number, Zip code, and email address. Once the registration is done, you will get a confirmation with what to do next:

Remember, to receive your $25, simply pay 2 bills within 30 days with Online Banking.

I just registered myself and will pay 2 bills very soon (I have been using BofA online bill pay for a long time). Let see when the bonus will come.

Update: On the registration page, it says

This is a special limited time offer available to existing consumer and small business customers who have not made a bill payment with Bank of America Online Banking within the last 6 months.

So it looks like I won’t get that $25 bonus after all

Don’t have a BofA checking account? Then this is your lucky day. If you take advantage of this special offer to open checking account with $250 minimum, you can get another $75 bonus. With the $25 offer above, you can get as much as $100.

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Bank of America $25 Bonus for Using Online Bill Pay

optionsXpress, one of the brokers that I have an account with and have talked about a few time in the past, is currently offering 12-month 0% APR balance transfer for its optionsXpress Platinum Visa Card. Even though the card also charges 3% balance transfer fee, but the fee is caped at $75 ($5 minimum), which is good if you want to transfer a large amount.

The card has no annual membership fee and it basically rewards cardholders 1% for shopping with the card. Rewards are given as optionsXpress points (1 optionsXpress point for every dollar spent) and once you accumulate 1,500 points, you can redeem them for $15 that will credited to your optionsXpress account. Therefore, you must have an optionsXpress brokerage account in order to receive the rewards points. If you don’t have an optionsXpress investment account, then all your points will be forfeited. In addition, points will expire after 24 months if not redeemed.

While optionsXpress Visa is a good card for balance transfer if you want to move balances from high-rate cards to this card, it seems that it isn’t an attractive choice if you want to invest your rewards. If investing credit card cash back rewards is what you are thinking about, then there are better options out there.

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optionsXpress Platinum Visa Card Offers 12-month 0% Balance Transfer

When I opened Ally Bank accounts last week, I deposited only $1,000 in the 9-month No Penalty CD account. That’s just the initial deposit that I plan to add more to later after the account is set up (it doesn’t make too much sense to have only $1,000 in a CD account, doesn’t it?).

So this morning, I decided to put more money into the CD account, but first I want to transfer the money already in the Savings Account to the CD account because the CD yield (2.15%) is a little higher than the yield of the savings account (2.00%). Interestingly, it doesn’t have the option to do such a transfer:

It’s only possible to transfer between Savings Account and external accounts, but the CD account is not in the mix. At first I thought it’s pretty weird because banks usually allow transfers between internal accounts. So I called Ally Bank and asked why I can’t add new money to the existing CD account. I was told that I can’t add new money to a CD account that is already funded. I will have to open a new account if I want put more money in CDs. Quite understandable. If that’s the procedure, then I just have to follow it.

While still logging in my account, I started the process of opening another CD account. Then I was a little surprised to see that it seems that I have to go through the entire process as if I am opening an account as a new customer, not an existing customer (I am still logged in my account). It turned out that I need to select “How Many Account Owners?” first before I can see the option to open an account as a current customer. It would be much easier if it shows the option at the very beginning instead of having to click a few buttons to see it. But that’s not the real problem.

I selected Joint Account, the account I want to open (9-month No Penalty CD), put in the initial deposit I want to have in the account, then I was asked to sign in as I am already a customer (I am still logged in). Without thinking of anything else, I logged in again with my own ID. The next screen I saw was with me as both the first and second account owner. That’s not right. So I had to call Ally Bank again and was told that I have to log out and asked, log in with my wife’s ID, then I will have my wife and I as the account owners, not just me. I followed the instruction: Logged out  first (the application wasn’t completed yet when I logged out), logged in my own again, restarted  the application, and logged in with my wife’s ID. When I got to the point that I had to select how to fund the account, I noticed that there are two CD accounts with two different account numbers, not just one, with the same amount of deposits that I want to put in the account. That’s not right. So I selected only one account to fund, not two, but I got an error message, saying I must select how to fund the account. If I must in order to go to next step, I must. I went back, selected to fund both accounts using my BofA account, and got the Congratulation page.

Then I checked my account list. Yes, I now have 3 No Penalty CD accounts and on the Pending Transfers page, I have to pending $56,000 transfers. When tried to delete one of the transfers, the Delete button was just disappeared (both the Edit and Delete buttons are clickable when I got the page first, but they are all inactive once I selected an account). It was just a few minutes between I finished opening the account and I tried to delete the transfer.

So I had to call Ally Bank once again and was told that I can’t delete it now because the order is already being processed. When I asked them how much time they give customers to make changes (since they have that Edit and Delete functions available, they must allow customers to do so, right?), a manager said maybe a few minutes, even seconds). On the Pending Transfers page, this is what it says:

You can view, edit and delete your scheduled Ally Bank and External Bank transfers below. Any immediate transfers to a non-Ally Bank account are processing so you won’t be able to edit or delete them.

So basically, even Ally Bank, like another bank, uses 3 business days to clear an ACH transfer, it won’t allow me to change my transfer once I submitted the request. This is really bad. I had done ACH transfers with many banks and as far as I know they all allow me to make changes, immediately or even hours later, but not Ally Bank. They told me there’s nothing they can do to stop the transfer. If I want it stopped, I will have to call BofA and stop the transfer. So I did and it cost me $30

Yes, there may be mistakes at my end, but the experience I had this morning really made me upset. Not that it really matters now because Ally Bank just reduced the yield of 9-month No Penalty to 2.05%. The stop order at BofA will stop both transfers, so no money will be transferred to Ally Bank.

I really don’t like to deal with banks that make things difficult. Seems Ally Bank belongs to that category. And before I make any money from the bank, I already paid $30.

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Ally Bank Accounts Fully Functional, But …

Since I started to learn options trading, I decided to open an account with OptionsHouse and see how it compares with other brokers I am currently using. If nothing else, the $2.95 commission itself makes OptionsHouse a nice choice to trade stocks.

OptionsHouse Interface

My first impression of OptionsHouse’s trading interface is very positive (since I am still waiting for my account to be funded, I wasn’t able to trade). Even though the interface is web based, it feels more like a stand alone platform.

The Account page lists all the information about the account, including Account Value, Portfolio Value, Cash Balance, Stock Buying Power, Option Buying Power, Positions, and Orders. By clicking tabs on the right hand of the screen, I can read market news, see chart of a particular stock, check out stocks in my watch-list, see what’s hot in options trading, and monitor indices.

The Stock page gives me detailed information about a particular stock I am interested in. For example, it shows the company profile, financials, latest insider trades, SEC filings, analyst ratings of the stock (in the picture above is analyst ratings of Citigroup and stock chart), earnings, and historical stock prices. The information is very comprehensive, covering pretty much everything you need to know about the company.

While the interface looks impressive, I found it’s a little weird that all stock quotes are delayed 20 minutes. I don’t know why it only gives delayed quote (hope it isn’t like TradeKing that I have to setup the account to get real-time quotes). If I want to trade stocks at real time, then I need real time quotes, not something that has happened 20 minutes ago.

The Options page shows Option Chain of a particular stock with expiration times for Put and Call Options from 17 days to 572 days.

OptionsHouse Tools

What I like the most are the tools offered by OptionsHouse. Here I can use tools such as Streaming Charts & News, Risk Viewer, Probability Calculators, P&L Calculator, Stock Screener, Vol Charts, Put Spread Investigator (as shown in the following screenshot), Call Spread Investigator, and Covered Call Investigator.

Even though I didn’t find a tool to let me do, for example, Technical Analysis, it does have quite a few tools for options trading. However, since I don’t trade options, I can’t comment on whether those tolls are useful for options trading or not. I will need to study a little more to know how to use them

I did played a little bit their stock screener. The function that let me export results in CVS file, which you can open with Excel, is quite nice (if you think it’s necessary to export the results of course).

What else?

Since I am still waiting for my account to be fully functional right now, I am sure there will be other functions that I will find helpful once I start to use it to trade. In addition to the flat $2.95 commission per stock trade, OptionsHouse also charge flat $9.95 for options trading. The flat fee, however, could cost you more if you only a small number of contracts (1 options contract represents 100 shares of the underlying stock). For example, if you trade only one options contract, you will pay OptionsHouse $9.95 in commission, while trading the amount of contract with, say, TradeKing, will cost you only $5.45 ($4.95 + $0.50/contract) because, TradeKing, like most other discount brokers, charges commissions for options based on the number of contracts traded (see updated discount brokers comparison for commissions charged by each broker for trading options),  plus the commission per stock trade. If you buy or sell more than 10 contracts, then OptionsHouse will make a better choice since TradeKing will charge more than $9.95 for trading more than 10 contracts.

If you are other brokers, but interested in trading stocks and options with OptionsHouse, you can open an account with OptionsHouse ($1,000 minimum is required), then use ACAT to transfer your account from other broker to OptionsHouse. Though you are likely to be charged with an account transfer out fee, but OptionsHouse will reimburse you up to $100 transfer fee charged by other broker.

Update: I had a online chat with OptionsHouse and it seems that I have to wait until my account is funded to see real time quotes. Also for the account to be fully functional, I need to fax in the signed application together with a voided check.

If you are interested in opening a brokerage account with OptionsHouse, use OptionsHouse promotion code below to open an account and start trading.

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A Look at OptionsHouse for Stocks and Options Trading

Even though $4 per investment is quite low, the planned investment scheme itself lacks the flexibility if you want to invest at your own time, instead of a fixed day every month. In addition, the actual cost  of each investment can be rather high if only a  very small amount of money (for example, $100, which is quite typical for investors who do dollar-cost-averaging) is invested each month. If I want to invest in stocks, I’d rather pay $4.50 per trade to buy shares with Zecco, for instance, at any time I want than paying $4 to invest with ShareBuilder on the first Tuesday of the month.

Anyway, that’s just what I would do. If you like ShareBuilder’s scheduled investment scheme, you can use promo code SBMP25 to open a ShareBuilder account and get $25 bonus (valid for first-time ShareBuilder account holders only). To qualify for the bonus, you must open the account with the promotion code and make at least one trade. One these requirements are met, the bonus will be credited within 4 weeks.

BTW, this offer is from ShareBuilder via MyPoints. As I mentioned early, MyPoints let you earn reward points for free by simply clicking the ads they send to you every day. Each click can earn you 5 points and there are multiple bonus offers every day. If you want to accumulate points faster, you can actually take up the offers (if you like them of course). For example, for the ShareBuilder offer, in addition to the $25 bonus, you can also receive 550 points from MyPoints if you open the account through MyPoints. Points earned can be redeemed for gift cards (3,75 points for a $25 Amazon.com gift card). Check it out if the program interests you.

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ShareBuilder $25 Bonus Promotion Code

The job is from the second employer that I was interviewed a few weeks ago. It’s a division of  the same employer who offered my very first job 9 years ago and does business mostly with the government. I got offers from the first two employers rather quickly. After evaluating the nature of the jobs, locations, and benefits, I decided to take the offer from the second employer mainly because the job is much more related to what I did before and the location is closer to where we are going to leave. So the decision is relatively an easy one.

The salary of this new job is about 15% higher than the salary of my previous job. In addition, I also get 4 weeks of vacation to start, 8% match of 401(k) contribution, plus an annual bonus that’s 10% of the base salary. The benefit is much better than what I got from my last employer. After the first day at my last job two years ago, I was very disappointed by what I had to do every day. For the time that I spent with the company, I never liked what I did, even though it also paid quite nicely. I hope that won’t happen to this new job

Now I am still waiting to hear from the last interview I took last week. It’s a very nice company (one of Forbes 100 Best Companies To Work For) and the job also matches my background quite well. I don’t know whether there will be an offer or not. If it does come, then it will be a much tougher decision to make between the job I am having now and the latest offer. But that’s not something I need to worry at this moment.

Now I am just going to enjoy my first day at my new job

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A New Day, A New Job

I got the book for quite some time already, but didn’t get the chance to read it until recently. Actually, it isn’t really a book that you can buy from a book store, but more like notes with basics of options trading that are easy to understand. It starts with explanations of what an option and volatility is and some common terminologies used in trading options (such as Long, Short, Put, Call, and Strike Price, etc.).

After the basic concepts, there are a few pages in the book, called Rookie’s Corner, for beginners like me. This part of the book mainly covers two topics (or plays) for traders who just start to trade options and don’t want to get burned:

• Writing covered calls
• Buying LEAPS calls as a stock substitute

The discussions in Rookie’s Corner cover the definition of each of the techniques and scenarios when and how to use them.
What I like the most about the book is The Plays part that consists of a total of 30 plays. Each play tells investors the setup of the play, who should run it and when to run it, and the strategy for the play. In addition, each play also comes with a diagram that shows the market condition to use the play.

I am still reading and digesting the plays and have yet to use any technique to trade option, but so far I found that the book is quite helpful in understanding some commonly used strategies in options trading. And because of the concise, getting-right-to-the-point language used in describing each play, reading the playbook is much easier than reading a traditional book.

I got the playbook when I opened my TradeKing account a couple of years ago. Right now, the book may not be available in hardcopy. However, if you are interested in using the playbook as the starting point to learn to trade options, you can still read the book online after you open a TradeKing account (be sure to check out TradeKing review to learn more about the broker before opening an account). In addition, TradeKing also offer two free intelligence reports on options trading:

• Options Trading Basics
• Top Ten Mistakes in Options Trading

To receive these free reports, all you need to do is provide your email address and the reports will be sent right to your inbox. And besides the free reports, you will also get $50 bonus if you use the link in the email to open a TradeKing account with $2,500 or more and make a trade. Pretty sweet, right?

Given how volatile the stock market has been lately, maybe it is time to finally learn how to use options trading to profit

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The reason for me to decide to get an account now is that, despite recent cuts (which I suspected was done under the pressure from the Fed’s new policy), the rate is still quite attractive. After being disappointed by IGoBanking, I need a bank with good rates to keep my money. Ally Bank came up because of their No Penalty CD, which I am really interested in, not really because of their Online Savings Account that offers the same yield as Dollar Savings Direct does. Also, since Ally Bank’s predecessor GMAC Bank has a pretty good tracking record of providing higher rate, I am hoping that when the economic environment improves, the bank can be even more competitive than it is now.

Anyway, opening an account with Ally Bank is rather straightforward, taking only a few minutes to complete. In addition to the personal information that’s required by every bank when opening an account, I had the option to get both the online savings account and CD account with one process. I am not sure if other banks allow you to do that, or you have to open multiple accounts one-by-one, but I think it saves time. I can also set up an external account link during the application to make both the initial deposit and additional funds in the future (there are other ways to fund the account, but ACH is the most convenient choice).

Since Ally Bank uses trial deposits to verify account ownership, it will take a couple of days before the account is fully functional. Now I just hope Ally Bank won’t reduce the rate of the No Penalty CD before I can fund the account and lock in the rate

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Ally Bank Online Savings Account Opened

Since I have been doing this for very long time (I got my first credit report from Experian in 1999), I know exactly what to read each time I receive a new credit report, whether there’s a credit score comes with it or not (while credit reports can be provided to you for free by the law, you generally have to pay to get a credit score, FICO or FAKO, unless you take advantage some special promotions or use the free service from Credit Karma, for instance). If you have never got your hands on your credit report before, but are about to get your own copy for the first time (make sure you use AnnualCreditReport.com for absolutely free reports though), the following is information you can expect to see on your credit report. Even though each credit reporting agency may format the information differently on their reports, they all provide:

Credit Summary

Here you can find a quick summary of your credit information, including your personal information (name, former names if any, social security number, current address, previous addresses, and employers), the length of your credit history, the number of accounts you own, the number of accounts in good standing, any account late or past due, the number of accounts with balance, recent inquiries, and any collections or public records on file, etc.

Accounts

The quick summary gives you an idea of your credit, so you can see right away if there is any problem. But if you want to find out all the details of each and every account, you will need to go through the Accounts section of your credit file and review accounts you own. Here you will find the issuer of the account, the status of the account and when the latest status is reported,  the time when the account is opened/closed, date of last activity, account type (Revolving, Installment, or Mortgage), credit limit, largest balance, current balance, payment terms (if it’s a loan), and up to 3 years of payment history. In addition,  you will also find the number of times your account has been late for 30+ days, 60+ days, or 90+ days.

Generally, the Accounts part of your credit report also has a snapshot of all your accounts, showing information such as issuers, date account opened, balance, status, and whether there’s any late payment or not. It allows you to see quickly whether there’s any red flag of an account before going into the details.

Credit Inquiries

An inquiry indicates when a business, usually a lender, has checked your credit. It usually appears on your report when you apply for tcredit and authorize the creditor to obtain a copy of your credit file. In general, credit inquiries have a negative impact on  your credit score, even though not much. Nonetheless, having multiple inquiries in a short period of time suggests that you are actively seeking credit, which represents a greater risk to lenders.

There are two types of credit inquiries: those can be seen only by yourself and those by every lender. These inquires are usually referred to as soft pull and hard pull, as I discussed before. Your credit re port usually shows credit inquires of the past 12 months.

Collections and Public Records

If you have any unpaid account that has been turned over to a collection agency, or any legal record such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, garnishments, and tax liens, they will appear on your credit report as Collections or Public Records. Any collection or public record can severely damage your credit score.

Dispute an Error

Finally, if you find any information that is not correct after carefully reviewing your report,  you need to contact the credit reporting agency (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion) from which you obtain your report and dispute the mistake.  Remember, your credit score depends on a lot on the accuracy of all the information on your credit report and any error could seriously hurt your score (that’s why you should check your report periodically). So it’s absolutely critical to keep information on your credit report, whether it’s personal information or credit information correct and up-to-date. If you find anything wrong, do not hesitate to contact the credit bureau to get it fixed. It’s not always easy and straightforward to deal with credit agencies, sometimes it even requires a large amount of time and efforts, but the cost of leaving an error on your report far outweighs the cost of having it corrected.

So have you got your free credit report yet?

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I have left IGoBanking a long time ago, but moved back in April after seeing their actually increased the rate of their savings account from 1.85% APY to 2.12% APY, the highest yield among banks I have accounts with, while everybody else has been in the rate reduction mood for a while (see savings account interest rates history for up-to-date rates). Attracted by their good   rates, I moved all my cash savings from Dollar Savings Direct to IGoBanking in April and have transferred additional money to the bank several times since then.  Unfortunately, that good rate didn’t long. The rate was cut to 2.02% APY at the end of May and now it stands at 1.91% APY.

While I have no problem with banks changing their rates whenever they feel like it, the problem I have with IGoBanking happens when I try to move my money out of the bank. Last Friday right, I scheduled my first transfer of $15,000 from IGoBanking to my checking account at Bank of America. Since IGoBanking has a daily transfer-out limit of $15,000, I couldn’t move all my  money out at once. The first transfer order seems going through without any issue. But since then I got this error message every time when I tried to schedule another transfer:

Error: The transfer amount you have entered exceeds the daily limit for Standard Service Type.

Even though the second transfer was scheduled several days after the first one. Did I miss something here? That $15,000 is a “Daily Limit”. How can I exceed the daily limit when I scheduled two $15,000 transfers 3 business days apart? Since I was always from home since Sunday, I wasn’t able to call the bank to find out exactly what’s going on with my transfers. But if they give me any unacceptable excuse when I call, I will just ask them to close my account and send me a check. I hate dealing with banks that make things so difficult.

Speaking of rates, I just received a notice from FNBO Direct that the rate of their savings account is now 1.50% APY. I hope they know how pathetic that rate is. FNBO used to offer very attractive rate. Now they just became another ING Direct or HSBC Direct. And that seems to be a trend once a bank becomes popular.

Update: I called IGo and was told that I have wait till the first transfer settled, which usually takes up to 3 business days, before I can schedule another transfer. They do, however, have another option that requires me to email their customer service to get the account upgraded to $100,000 limit. I have already sent the email. Now I am waiting for the upgrade to complete so I can transfer my money out at once. I guess I will still keep my account

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I Hate IGoBanking

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If you are a MS Money user for years, like my fellow blogger 2million, you probably won’t be very happy about Miscosoft’s decision to discontinue Money, especially if you have all your personal finance data stored in Money. At the same time, it may be time for you to start to look for alternatives to replace MS Money before the day when all updates and supports of the software end.

Desktop Software

As far as I know, MS Money is one of the two commercially available desktop personal finance software. The other one, which stands to benefit from the discontinuation of MS Money, is Quicken from Intuit. I have been using Quicken Home & Business to track my investments and credit card and bank accounts for quite some time and like the software quite well, especially its reporting functionality. I also used MS Money before switching to Quicken a few years ago. Now it seems I made the right decision back then

Update: If you are considering switching to Quicken, you can take advantage of their special promotion to get up to $50 off some popular Quicken products from now till July 31st with free shipping. Products currently on sale include:

• Quicken Deluxe: Was $59.99, on sale at $39.99 ($20 off);
• Quicken Premier: Was $89.99, on sale at $59.99 ($30 off);
• Quicken Home & Business: Was $99.99, on sale at $69.99 ($30 off);
• Quicken Rental Property Manager: Was $149.99, on sale at $99.99 ($50 off).

While you will have to pay for the software if you want to switch to Quicken, there’s also one free personal finance software available called GnuCash. I have heard about this software for sometime and even installed it on my computer, but I’ve never got a chance to try it myself to see how it works. Maybe it’s time to start working on it. If you want to find out more about GnuCash, About.com has short review of the software.

Web Based Software

Like Microsoft admitted in the announcement, there are plenty of web based personal finance tools available that you don’t really need to pay a penny to use them. One of them is Quicken Online, also from Intuit. Mint.com is another popular website that lets you budget and track your money for free. I have mentioned a few other personal finance tools early and they are all free (if you are comfortable with online tools of course).

Microsoft Money may be gone, but there are many other choices, paid or free, out there that can help you keep your financial records up to date.

photo credit: zolierdos

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Alternatives to MS Money

The letter was a notice to let us know that we now owe the IRS $485.07 because

We changed the amount of the recovery rebate credit you claimed on Line 70 of your Form 1040 because the amount entered was computed incorrectly.

While it isn’t as bad as an audit letter, it still made me feel that I didn’t something wrong with our tax return, whether it’s my fault or not. So I went back to our 2008 tax form and found on Line 70 “Recovery rebate credit“, the amount entered was $483. The problem is I didn’t enter that amount myself. It was TurboTax, the tax software I used to prepare our tax returns, which determined the amount of rebate credit we should get for us What is more frustrating is that I can’t seem to figure out how $483 is calculated even after going through related worksheets. Actually, the only information I can find that’s related to the recovery rebate credit in the return was on the Federal Information Worksheet, which has the following two lines under Recovery Rebate Credit Information:

• Estimated economic stimulus rebate calculated on your 2007 TurboTax return: $384;
• Economic stimulus payment received (before offset): $201;

The difference of $183 between the actual amount of economic stimulus payemnt we received and the amount TurboTax calculated is the penalty for not paying enough estimated taxes in 2007. Maybe I made a mistake about “before offset”, but somehow the numbers just don’t add up: How exactly is the $483 credit calculated anyway?

What should I do next? Pay the amount we are told we owe? Or disput the correction?

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Did TurboTax Mis-calculate My Recovery Rebate Credit?

Having been investing in gold since 2002 (Tocqueville Gold Fund (TGLDX) is my main vehicle to invest in gold though I have also bought a few gold coins in the past couple of years), I was pretty excited when gold broke the key $1,000/ounce mark in March 2008. But since then, gold has been traded down in general.

But then you’d think that with the government printing money at a record speed to finance the stimulus and recovery, gold could easily retake the $1,000 level and be traded even higher. That didn’t happen until March 2009 when gold did claim back the $1,000 an ounce level as the stock market got hammered by seemingly endless turmoils in the financial market. The rally, however, was yet again a short-lived one, with gold reaching as low as $870/ounce in April. Since then, gold has made another attempt to break $1,000/ounce, but failed (only reached $990) and currently is traded around $930.

Where is gold going from here? Can the precious metal find support at $930 and start to trade higher again? Or is it forming a double-top and going to test recent lows again?

In this latest INO educational video (more about INO and MarketClub), gold’s recent trade was examined from the technical analysis point of view. Check it out if you also want where gold is heading to.

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Where Is Gold Heading to?

The new offer is the High-Yield Savings Account from American Express. The credit card issuer received permission from the Fed to become a bank holding company last November. Right now the savings account has an yield of 2.00% APY. There’s no minimum deposit requirement to open an account (of course, you will have to have at least $1 in your account to earn interest). The account has no monthly fee either and it’s insured up to $250,000 by the FDIC. AMEX uses trial deposits to verify account ownership. Once the verification process is completed, you can link external bank accounts to AMEX account and make electronic fund transfer (ACH). For the savings account, interests are compounded daily and credited every month.

In addition to savings account, AMEX also has CD products with maturities ranging from 3 months to 5 years. The 1-year CD rate is currently at 2.00% APY and 2-year at 2.50% APY.

Well, there isn’t much information on their website about the new savings account offer if you want to know more about it. When I look at  savings products, the only thing that matters to me is the rate. Without a good rate, there’s just no basis for any other features. To be fair, 2.00% APY isn’t that appealing for a savings account, even in a weak environment (you can find comprehensive, update rate information for popular online savings accounts). You can find better deals from, for example,

• Ally Bank Online Savings Account 2.05% APY;
• Dollar Savings Direct Savings Account 2.05% APY;
• EverBank Money Market Account 3.01% 3-month bonus rate;

Speaking of savings account, I am still considering whether to get an account with Ally Bank (a savings account and a no penalty CD) or not. If it weren’t the rate cut last week, I probably had one already

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American Express Online Savings Account 2% APY

I am not really a big fan of online tools as I prefer to store sensitive information on my home computer instead of on a website. For example, I use Quicken Home & Business to track my investments and bank and credit card accounts, which is the only money management tool that I am currently using (Quicken Online is an online version of the software that’s free for everybody to use).

Last week, an article on The Wall Street Journal listed a few what it called the best online personal finance tools that can make your life easier. The article broke the tools into 6 categories, covering such topics as budgeting (though I have talked about how to use free tools to make a budget before, I don’t have a budget myself), financial planing, tracking investments, and managing loans, etc. Among those tools mentioned, some, like Mint and Yodlee, have been mentioned here before, while most of them are new to me. Even if I am probably not going to use any of them, it’s still good to know that there are such options available.

Budgeting

This is definitely the biggest category among the six with the most tools available, including very popular ones Mint.com, Wesabe.com, and Geezeo.com. The basic function of these websites is to help users track thrr expenses by allowing them to download transactions from banks or credit card issuers, which is the first step in creating a working budget. In addition, these websites can also alert users when, for example, a bill is about to pass the due date or the available balance of a bank account or credit card is below a preset level, helping users avoid bank or credit card fees.

Financial Planing

Once you are ready to move beyond the stage of tracking and budgeting, there are also free tools to help you go to the next level, such as making plans for how to save for your retirement, and invest your money in general. However, unlike budgeting which is quit straightforward in some sense (you make a plan and stick to the numbers), investing strategy is highly subjective. No matter how comprehensive the online interview can be, no software or website can make investment decision for you. Nonetheless, if you are looking for help to get started, SimpliFi.net is one of the websites that “uses a virtual financial adviser named Sophie to guide you through a planning process based on financial goals.” Other sites like Planwithvoyant.com and Basic.esplanner.com also offer free advices to help you plan your financial life.

Tracking Investments

Nowadays, many brokers, such as Zecco, TradeKing, and Firstrade, have their own social networks where customers share investment ideas and compare portfolios. But the idea of tracking *real* investments doesn’t belong exclusively to brokers, which do have the advantage over other third party players. You can also do the same with Covestor.com and CakeFinancial.com. If you want  more than just suggestions from your peers, you can try Portfoliomonkey.com, a website that will examine your portfolio and tell you the expected returns based on your allocation.

Other Tools

In addition to the above mentioned three categories, you can find websites that let you check for fraud (Finra.org), obtain free credit score (CreditKarma.com), and manage loans (Virginmoneyus.com). Check them out to see if you find any of them useful. I know Credit Karma’s free credit monitoring service is

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This afternoon, we called one of the agents we talked with before and signed all the paperwork with him so we can get the process started.  Originally, the plan was to list the house at the beginning of the month, but now it’s the middle of the month already. We can’t afford more delays if we want to sell the house before the new school year begins. We were told that June, July, and August are the best time to sell a house.

The realtor we hired seems to be quite easy-going (we didn’t use the realtor who helped us buy the house five years ago because she was a little pushy). He has been in this business for more than 12 years, bought his first house also in this community, so he’s very familiar with the market. After we mentioned to him that we prefer to sign a three-month first instead of six-month, he gladly agreed. As for the commission, the maximum we will pay is 5% under normal condition. If the agent finds a buyer himself, then the commission is reduced to 4%; if we can bring in a buyer, then we only need to pay him 2.5% commission.

Now let’s wait and see how it goes.

My job search, on the other hand, went much more smoothly than I thought. As expected, I got my first offer yesterday, from the second interview a couple of days ago, not the first one last week. Speaking of the job offer, it’s quite ironic that after more than 8 years, I may work for the same employer who offered me my first job after graduating from school. And more ironically, I finally could make more now from this job than from my first job That’s 8 years, back to where I started as a new graduate.

The job hunting could end very soon, given how it has gone so far. Next week, there will be another, maybe the last, interview with one of the 100 Best Companies To Work For. Since it’s a big company, I don’t expect it to be a quick process. So I guess my best bet is take the offer I just got, then see what will come out of the next interview.

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House and Job Update

In addition to PineCone Research, I also use MyPoints to earn points for free by simply clicking the ads they send to me every day (there are usually multiple Bonus Emails every day) and earn 5 points for each click. I can also earn more points by shopping through MyPoints or taking up some offers, but I am usually too lazy to do that, so most of the time I only got the free points. MyPoints also have surveys for 50 points per completed survey. Check it out to see if you like it.

Get it before it’s gone again

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First, our 4-year old was diagnosed with Strep last Thursday. She started to cough a little bit on Tuesday, then woke with a mild fever on Thursday. Since New Jersey is one of the hardest hit states by the Swine flue virus, her symptoms really made us nervious. When we called the school she attends, we were told that there were other three kids called in sick last week. Fortunately, she tested positive for Strep and that explains the fever. After a couple of doses of antibiotic, she appeared to be recovering very well.

But that’s not the end the of it. Since Strep is highly contagious, we tried to separate the 4-year old from the rest of the family. But our effort failed badly. First was my wife, then me, then our 2-year old, all feeling ill over the weekend. And I was the worst. I had to bed rest for entire weekend to just get some strength back. Haven’t felt that sick for a long, long time. While nobody else was tested positive for Strep, we all had a little fever and sour throat and I have to take antibiotic as well

The timing couldn’t have been worse for us. Last week, we hired a contractor to fix a few minor issues around the house and plan to use the weekend to do some final clean up before putting the house on the market. That, of course, didn’t happen and it’s at least one more week of delay.

Then there are job interviews. My search for a job in the DC area has yielded some very positive results. After a few phone interviews, I went down to Maryland last Wednesday for my first face-to-face interview and will go to Virginia again for another interview Then there will be one more, at least, in two weeks in Virginia. I’d love to do all these interviews in a couple of days so I don’t have to drive 500 miles every week or two. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.

Anyway, this is a pretty busy period for us with a lot of things to do. Hopefully, I can keep up with the posts, when I have time

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Strep, House, and Job

Actually, what interested me the most isn’t the new rewards program, but what is mentioned in the story about possibly the fate of the Chase Freedom card rewards program that I have been enjoying for quite a well:

For Chase, the move is also a way to replace older versions of its Freedom card, some of which had offered richer cash-back rewards and bonus opportunities. Throughout the year, all Chase Freedom cardholders will be moved to the rewards program, where they will earn 1% cash back (or one point) for every dollar spent and 3% cash back (or three points) for every dollar spent in categories that change each quarter.

……

… However, some Chase Freedom cardholders who want to earn a fixed 3% bonus for spending in grocery, gas and fast-food categories, will soon pay a $30 annual fee. Chase’s Sapphire Preferred card — where users can transfer points to other travel reward programs — has a $95 annual fee.

Just last week, I said that I am lucky because I still haven’t got the letter from Chase about reducing the cashback from 3% to 1%. If what said above is true, then I guess there won’t be much time left for me to keep getting 3% back and I won’t pay $30 annual fee to use the card.

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Chase Introduces Ultimate Rewards