Money Blog » Bank

Direct-deposit your paycheck

Alex — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:48:07 +0000

One of the most overlooked item in one’s monthly budget is savings. It’s always best to pay yourself first. Before you earmark your income for bills and such, make sure that a percentage gets automatically stashed away as savings.

One way to help you manage this is to have your paycheck directly deposited to your savings account. The problem with having your income as cash on hand is that it’s easy to spend it making overspending very likely. Putting everything in your account helps you avoid that.

If you make it a chore for you to get your money, you’re less likely to tap into it occasionally. This should help your with the discipline of budgeting as well since you have to sort out finances before you make that special trip to the bank to get only what you need.

You can always make arrangements with your employer to do this. Just ask your accounting/finance or human resources if this is possible.

How to write a check

Alex — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:19:54 +0000

Congratulations on your new checkbook if this is your first time getting one. Here are some stuff you need to remember when finally writing and signing a check:

Write the date on the date line. You may use whatever format you like as long as it is readable. If you are writing a check for immediate use, write the current date. If you wish to have the check cashed on a later date, you can write a future date. This check is called a post-dated check.

On the line that starts with, “Pay to the Order of,” or “Payable to,” write the name of the person or entity receiving your check.

Write the amount using words on the line before the word “Dollars”. For example, Sixty and 50/100 Dollars. Write the amount again in numerical form in the small space with a dollar sign ($).

Don’t forget to sign at the signature line which can be usually found at the lower right corner of the check.

Take note of the check number, date, payee and amount on the check stub at the front of your checkbook. Subtract the amount so you can keep track of the money left in your account.

If you have any void or unused checks and deposit slips, make sure that you completely destroy them so that they can’t be copied for counterfeiting.

2009 US bank failures tally at 94

Alex — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:03:27 +0000

Local and regional banks continue to tread on thin ice. Two more banks – Irwin Finanical’s Irwin Union Bank a& Trust and Irwin Union Bank – have been closed by the FDIC.

The FDIC made the decision after Irwin Financial failed the FDIC’s requirement of more capital. The closure is expected to set the FDIC’s insurance fun back by $850 million.

So far, it has doled out almost $35 billion for bank failures this year shrinking the insurance fund to a mere $10.4 billion from $45 billion.

This raises concern on whether or not the FDIC would need to ask more funding from the government to continue providing insurance. The FDIC, however, claims that it has enough in reserves to deal with future closures.

Source: BBC