Haunting the Bricks and Mortar
Brick and mortar banks are great. They have served us well for many years. Nevertheless, they don’t always have the best rates. Make sure you know the not-so-scary truth about internet bank accounts. Don’t just haunt the brick and mortar banks like a reluctant ghost.
Getting Entombed in Bad CD Rates
CDs have a feature that allows them to renew themselves like zombies. If your CD reaches maturity, it’ll turn into another (similar) CD unless you instruct the bank otherwise. When your CDs mature, make sure you take a good hard look at alternatives before letting it renew itself. If you do nothing, you might have to pay a penalty (and howl!) to get out of the CD early.
Bloodsucking Fees
Fees can really eat away at your earnings. You may think you have a free checking account, but parasites may be sucking the life out of your finances. Overdraft protection plans, payday loans, and ATM fees can all get you into a spooky situation. Make sure you’re aware of how these work and how to avoid them.
Devilish Scammers
The shadows are full of grubby little goblins grabbing for your cash. They’re tricky little devils. You need to be aware of their gruesome tricks, like skimming scams (where they steal your info right off your ATM card), vishing scams (where you shriek your personal information to a scammer over the phone), and cashier’s check fraud.
If you’re not careful, your identity could become possessed! The witches refer to this as identity theft. You’ll find yourself using accounts you don’t even remember in far-away places you never got to enjoy.
Skeletons in the Closet
If you want to borrow money, lenders need to trust you. If you’ve got a history of wicked behavior, you can really hurt your chances. Lenders use things like your FICO credit score to decide whether or not to loan to you. Make sure it’s in good shape, and fix your credit report if it’s got errors on it.
Detached ARMs Holding You Down
Some loans have a life of their own. You may believe that you’re doing fine because you make the required payments, but you’re just digging yourself a grave. Those 1% mortgages can put a spell on you – it sounds like a good deal, right? In reality, you’re falling into the web of negative amortization , which will really cost you over the long run.
