Online Banking

Public Service Announcement: Change Your Online Banking Password

When was the last time you changed the password for your online banking account? Seriously. Think about it. Have you ever changed it? I wouldn’t be surprised if most of you – even though you’re a savvy online banking user – rarely, if ever, change your banking passwords. This is especially true if you use an […]

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The Market May Be Irrational, But You Shouldn’t Be

I woke up to a shock as I went online to check my banking. On the screen, one of the equities in my account was showing a value of $47,025,120.00. Yes, $47 million. As delightful a fantasy as that is, I had no real temptation to print off the screen and go take out a […]

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The Paper Documents You Actually Need to Keep

In an age of online banking and bill pay, it’s easy and makes a ton of sense to go paperless, especially when it comes to the traditional bank and bill statements you’ve been getting in the mail for years. But for as many documents that we can store digitally, there are a few items that […]

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If The FBI Director Can Fall for Phishing, So Can You

Despite the overall safety of online banking, there will continue to be scams targeting consumers who aren’t using their common sense when logging in. It can happen to anyone — yes, that means you — like it just happened to Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI. According to a speech Mueller gave at the […]

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Ask the Readers: Have You Gone Paperless?

In the age of online banking and digital record-keeping, it’s more convenient than ever to stop collecting piles of statements, receipts and even your bills. But that doesn’t mean people are ready to make such a change. A paperless financial lifestyle is easier said than done, but it’s accessible to just about anyone who wants […]

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Weekend Linkage: Online Banking, Yodlee and the iPhone

We didn’t really cover Mint’s acquisition by Intuit (makers of Quicken) for $170 million, but in the analysis of the deal, there’s been some interesting takes — and how Yodlee, the account aggregator used in Automatic Finances, plays into it. TechCrunch, which covers startups and the Silicon Valley scene, calls Mint Yodlee’s YouTube. Meaning, Mint […]

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Weekend Linkage: Online Banking, Tools and Automation

If there was no theme to last week’s Weekend Linkage, this week is the complete opposite: each story draws directly from the Automatic Finances system for money management. Saving for Serenity lays out a plan for Automating Annual Expenses like birthday/anniversary/Christmas presents, offering two options: setting up subaccounts for specific goals, or having one bigger […]

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Microsoft Money Discontinued, Thanks Online Banking

Microsoft Money is headed for the grave. The personal finance software, one of the big two desktop programs (along with Quicken), is being discontinued for sale at the end of this month. The reason? Banks and other online services are doing the job, according to a posting on Microsoft’s Money site. With banks, brokerage firms […]

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Ask the Readers: Does Going Green Affect Your Financial Choices?

This is a little late for Earth Day, but one of the arguments always made for banking online and going paperless is that it’s environmentally-friendly. The fewer checks you write, the fewer paper statements you get, the more you use a debit card instead of cash, the fewer trees get cut down. For me, it’s […]

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Why Every Account You Have Needs a Name

As I’m helping more people manage their finances, I’m finding one common theme: people don’t have names for their savings accounts. Instead of having multiple short-term savings accounts, they tend to only have one “savings account” that holds all of their money. If you’re in this situation, you need to break out your savings into […]

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Ask the Readers: Where Do You Bank Online?

Let’s start off the week with a poll: where do you bank online? For so many of us, we have a ton of different accounts for different reasons: central checking, credit cards, savings, investments, and more. That’s why account aggregators like Yodlee are so crucial to find where your money is going. Let us know […]

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