Finance & Money
Victim of Bank/Identity Fraud
I got a call earlier today from HSBC “corporate security” who wanted to review transactions on my account. Turns out someone’s been making fraudulent transactions using my debit card! Apparently not only do they have the card number but they’ve duplicated the card and even swiped it yesterday at a gas station in Canada. This came as a surprise since I practically never use my debit card and I’ve never lost it (it just sits in my wallet). Luckily HSBC told me that I’m not liable for any of the fraud charges.
Managing Personal/Business Finances
I pretty much use only 1 credit card for all of my personal expenses and 1 credit card for all of my business expenses. If I can swipe, I’ll swipe instead of using cash. It’s just so much easier to manage especially with online account access and statements. My main card is a rewards card so even though it’s not much, I’m still getting a little bit back. When the monthly billing date comes around, I simply pay the statement off using electronic transfer from my checking account. This makes my personal expenses incredibly easily to manage and lets me import everything into Quicken (I may move to Quickbooks, but Quicken is enough for now).
What’s the Real Deal with these High Yield Savings Accounts?
So I’ve been looking into these high yield savings accounts that are offering up to 5.05% APY. I know they can cut costs by not offering you normal bank services and only allowing online access, but it still seems a little too good to be true. Are banks really competing that hard to get savers to open accounts with them?