Budget Snob

Survey is in – HMO Good Congress Bad

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Uttering the three letters H-M-O gives me the creeps. Nameless, faceless bodies that tell me which medical specialists I can see and which ones I’ll have to fork out a few extra dollars for. But, HMOs fair much better when compared to another nameless, faceless body…Congress.

In a recent article by Daniel Indiviglio of The Atlantic, he shares the latest results of a confidence survey recently completed by Gallup.

The results? People have more confidence in banks, big business, and their HMOs than in Congress. Here are the full results:

Read the full story at Gallup. … Read the rest

Free Checking – Headed Into Hibernation?

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We assume free checking is and will always be, well, free. But that age may be ending, at least for some customers. Which banks might be going “freeless”? According to the New York Times:

Wells Fargo: As of July 1, the bank is no longer offering its “free checking,” or no monthly fee, account product to new customers. Instead, new customers will either have to pay a monthly service fee or meet certain requirements like a minimum balance requirement to have the fee waived (the change does not affect customers who had the account before July 1).

Citibank: Last November, the bank announced it was removing certain waivers from its EZ Checking and Access Checking packages.

… Read the rest

Credit Unions – An Overview

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I’ve only been a credit union member once. I enjoyed it until they closed down my checking account for overdrawing it too many times. Completely my fault, of course.

But, credit unions had a stigma in my mind after that. But I have a friend who swears he’ll never go back to a bank after having been a credit union member. He’s not alone. Credit unions are popular and seem to be growing more so each year.… Read the rest