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Be your own Banker

15. February 2006 | Category Interests, Money

Having enjoyed the many ventures I’ve set out on with online banking, I’ve always been interested in the next new direction internet based banking has been going.

It seems that now personal, bankless loans are starting to become all the rage. After hearing about Zopa, a leading British-only online lending site, I heard that someone else has begun business here in the U.S. under the guise of Prosper.

Basically, both sites get people together that want to borrow money and those willing to lend it to them. Sounds easy enough. Pretty much just like borrowing someone a buck for a pop or candy, although a tad bigger scale. It might be of note that you don’t personally know these people, unlike your local bankers might. The only problem seems to be when those borrowing default partially or totatlly on the loan. Seems that Zopa counters this by spreading lenders money between numerous accounts and verification by a ‘risk managers’.
With Prosper one could borrow directly to a sole person or spread the ‘risk’ among numerous people. Also poor reports to the credit agencies and debt collectors will enter the fray upon defaults of loans. Both sites don’t guarantee your won’t lose money, but banks work the same way I guess.

And if you are borrowing money and aren’t happy with the rates the banks are forcing you to swallow, this may be a suitable backup plan.

Seems like an interesting field on finance to be invovled in, as well as keeping an eye on. It seems Zopa itself is entering the US market in late 2006 which should keep Prosper and others like it on their collective toes.

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Paypal Beware!

8. February 2006 | Category Interests, Money

Not that I’m a big Paypal user, but I found an alarming problem in their structure that could make for some unpleasantries. About this time last year, I signed up for a hosting plan for a small website. It cost a few bucks, which was okay, but little did I know that it would be considered a reoccurring annual transaction or subscription.

So while reconciling my checking account, I notice an odd amount deducted that I can’t verify other than coming from Paypal. Seems that hosting company charged me this year too, again not a large amount, but they did charge me without my implicit approval.

Problem is that Paypal insists on using a checking account to link to. This causes problems if said checking account balance is less than charge which you are unaware that is going to be made to that account. Seems to me that a subscription should warn you a few days/weeks in advance the pending charge and then you can accept or deny it.

Otherwise, one could overdraft on an account for this silly reason and I’m sure given the trouble numerous people have reaching Paypal support, it would fall on deaf ears.

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Corporate Schinanigans

27. July 2005 | Category Money, Rant

Got some mailing from the local investment house that is reveired by many citizens in Gaylord. Seems that American Express or namely it’s financial advisors have gone and changed their name after their own personal scandel involving the greed that consumed nearly all the investment industry during/after the last stock market bubble.

So welcome to Ameriprise, the newly spun off investment advisory company. And what is really quaint is the omission of why they are a new company with 100+ years of experience. Where’d they get that experience? By ripping of investors? No that won’t make the promotional brochure.

These cronies tried selling their own piss poor investments over better peforming investments all the while the ship was thinking and now they can slap a new coat of paint on the same b.s. and call it progress. Good grief.

The part I like is that my mother personally holds the local yahoos responsible for our investments with the former American Express Financial Advisors. Sure these guys were your best friends when the market only looked up and everyone was making money. They didn’t care and won’t care now for your personal sob story about how they didn’t do enough. They’ll say it’s your job to review your portfolio or whatnot and not their responsibility.

Guess the bottom line is, don’t ever trust anyone to do anything for you, even if it seems it’s their job or should be. They only are in it for themselves and if they tell you otherwise one of you should be the fool.

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Shitibank Customer Service Woes

8. March 2005 | Category Money, Rant

For joy! I have had the distinct pleasure of getting the cold shoulder from Shitibank once again. All this trouble to get a ‘free’ ipod. Seems they currently don’t know how service the customer. After setting up my initial account with them some months ago they still have to get things in order. Seems they want the U.S. government to withhold tax on my account, although this is the first I’ve ever had to deal with such silliness. So I called a whole month ago to get it straightened out. Fine.

Got mail today that indicates they now think I’m a Foreign Citizen, which may explain why they sent me withholding forms for foreign residents. Last time I checked, Mn was still with the USA. So call THEM up again, for the same exact reason I had a month ago. They’ve been real helpful in the past with phone calls. Calling every few days to see if I like their service,of course I say no and rant about it to Mr. India and they write it down and say good day. Nothing more.

Call into Service Center, conviently located in India and staffed by persons that have such a small grasp of the English language and are afraid they might wake someone up with the volume of their voice. I ask for correct form. Asked if I can be put on hold… Sure. Wait good 15 minutes. Back, can I take down your information? Sure. Another 10 minutes pass, with constant waits and holds while something gets supposedly done. When I get indication of successful form being expediated, I ask what the problem was. Just filling out the information to send me the form. What? 25 minutes to fill out a form request when I could have filled out the form, drove to town to mail it and come back and this guy would still be processing it?

I was irrate at this point and his poorly phrased excuses was it. I asked to talk to supervisor. Could I be put on hold? I asked who freaking long this ‘hold’ would be. 1 minute. Well 2 minutes later I get to talk to an American. All he can do is apologize without making it really seem he is sorry and they’re doing everything they can to help me. I always can call them. That ain’t help!!! I demand payment. He can’t pay me for nothing they haven’t done, even including wasting my time. Asswipes. This yahoo wouldn’t budge after I was ranting about all the stuff Shitibank has screwed me over on. I had it. I hung up on him after his convient silences.

So I sit and wait for them to send me the correct forms in another month’s time. Interesting to see what I may/ may not get then. Pathetic. And to think all I’d need to do was print appropriate form from the IRS website.

And they call this Customer Service? Why does everyone have to be their own best customer representative? These corporations rake in all the cash they want, imbezzle and defraud investors and when someone requests support on their products they balk. They send the jobs overseas to people that can’t speak English and when they get a problem not listed on their scripts they panic and put you on hold. Heck it’s cheap and they never have to respond to complaints, sounds like a win-win.

When will these idiots learn to properly service the customer? When? I think I’m going to take my money and run when I get the first chance. Unfortunately, it’s tied up, so that may be awhile. Maybe I’ll just take the iPod and run.

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Free Credit Report

1. March 2005 | Category Money, Personal

Finally, you can get your own credit report online. For free even. Not sure why Midwesterners had to wait until March 1. Maybe it’s because this service will be so popular, they’ll get inundated with requests. It’s about time they made this information ‘free’ to the person they wrack up all this information about.

I urge everyone to at least check out one of their reports. I’ve heard advice say that you should stagger getting all three throughout the year, to better your coverage year-round.

Do note that they make use of cookies and don’t support Mozilla Browsers, a fact they really don’t allude to unless you browse the FAQ first. Kinda presumptuous I think.

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