Greg McBride Quotes (75 Quotes)

That difference of roughly 1.5 percentage points is enough to generate 150 in interest income that you'd otherwise leave on the table with a 10,000 investment.

These are not things that are subject to price competition. No bank is going to advertise low bounced-check fees.

Even if someone pays the balance in full, that 2.5 percent fee they're going to pay for the convenience outweighs the rewards they're going to earn, especially on frequent flier miles.

It's the price of not doing business with a particular institution. Just as non-account holders bear the costs associated with an ATM network, banks are now assessing non-account holders for in-branch check cashing,

If the prospects that your home will appreciate in value are good, paying PMI is not the end of the world,

If you have an adjustable-rate mortgage poised for an increase any time in the next two years, you are standing on the train tracks with the bright lights bearing down on you.

The beginning of the year is an opportune time to look at all aspects of your finances. Part of that is getting better organized for 2006.

In a rising interest rate environment, there's very little justification for holding on to credit card debt. It should almost always be the primary focus of your debt reduction efforts.

The extended low-rate holiday that consumers have enjoyed is a thing of the past.

Bouncing a check results in a punitive fee from your bank, and the punishment is growing increasingly harsh.

When the yield curve inverts, banks' funding costs rise above what they earn by lending. This can produce a credit crunch.

We'll continue to see some movement in response to anticipation of future Fed rate hikes.

It's the punitive fees that are escalating so quickly. What some banks are doing now is cutting the cost of the first bounced check so the guy who bounces a check once in a while catches a break.

There's no incentive to go into that longer maturity now.

Shop around, since there's no need to pay some of these fees when the bank across the street doesn't charge them. Also look for free non-interest checking, not an account whose interest is a pittance and requires a higher balance and higher monthly service charge.

That could really crimp consumer spending and hold back economic growth.

And FDIC insurance won't cover you.

The things you need to do remain the same. You have to pay your bills on time and keep your debt level under control, regardless of who's keeping score.

To be able to lock in those kinds of returns without risk is attractive to investors at a time when bond investments are lucky to be break even.

The range of scores is more intuitive to the consumer. Lenders will have a choice about which scoring methodology to use. Whether they accept the new system will depend on pricing, and how widespread the new scores are accepted.

This has been a good time for CD investors. It's long overdue. Income-dependent investors like retirees are seeing their cash investments finally bear fruit.

Eighty-six percent of institutions will charge you for using a different bank's ATM.

There are some very attractive savings offers for consumers right now. Average rates on certificates of deposit are the highest they have been in almost five years.

If you carry a balance, your focus should be on credit cards with the lowest interest rates.

The prime rate moves in concert with the Fed's interest rate moves, ... The average rate for a home equity line of credit has increased from 4.7 percent in June 2004 to 5.9 percent as of last week.

In that case, you are easily looking at a 9-month, maybe a year, interest penalty.

Think of all the demands on each of your paychecks. There are bills that have to be paid, you have to manage your debts, hopefully pad your savings a bit and still save for retirement.

The prospect of future rate hikes will push yields on CDs even higher, making them even more attractive.

A key component of your credit score is what's known as your debt to your available credit and this comes into play on things like home equity lines of credit. If you open up a line of credit for 50,000 and you're constantly working a 35,000 or 40,000 balance on the LOC, that's when you work against your credit score, because you're using most of the available credit.

What we're seeing here is a growth in the punitive type of fees. The fees are really going to get you if you step outside the bounds set by financial institutions.

Sometimes that difference between short-term rates and long-term rates expands and sometimes it narrows. That difference has narrowed in the last two years, which hampers banks' ability to profit from the difference.

We can thank our friends at the Fed because the interest rate increases they have made are pushing credit cards and other rates such as home equity lines of credit higher.

That's the 64,000 question. Seventy percent of economic output is tied to consumer spending. The idea is to raise rates enough to stave off inflation, but not so as to curtail spending.

The fact is an ARM that you took a year ago could easily adjust to 6.5 percent or 7 percent percent at the next adjustment. Contrast that with the ability to lock in 6 percent for the next five years.

You'll be hurting your credit history.

Looking back 10, 20 years ago when interest rates were high, taking an ARM was a pretty good gamble because rates were more likely to go down than up. We're in the exact opposite environment now, and the likelihood is that will go up, not down.

Conventional wisdom says if you're getting a large refund, it's a bad thing, that you've lent money to the government for free for the past year. If your refund is the only way you can save, who's to say it's a bad idea It may not be the best way to save, but it's better than nothing at all.

In 2002, rates on both types of cards are nearly certain to rise. Even fixed-rate cards are no shelter. The jockeying around to find a low-rate card is really only half the equation, ... The real thing to do is pay down debt.

Pay off cards with low balances. This will create some breathing room in the budget that may be needed to keep up with the higher minimums on your other credit cards.

That's where the payment pain is going to come for a lot of households.

Over a year ago, we tried to buy a building near the (Indiana Memorial Union) that has been vacant for some time. We were just told that it was going to be used for education, which is great, but it still hasn't been touched.

Pay your bills on time, and pay your debt down over time. Together, those factors account for 65 percent of your credit score.

Fee income is the great stabilizer of bank earnings, particularly in unfavorable interest rate environments such as the one we're currently experiencing.

It's really a wise strategy to do that -- to throw whatever you can at the balance.

But if you're trading a lower-rate mortgage for a higher-rate one just to free up cash, you're in a losing trade.

Consumer banking experts don't expect that to be a concern with the marriage of J. P. Morgan Chase and Bank One. There's very little geographic overlap in these two institutions, ... The only area where they both have significant market share is in Texas.

Stringing a car loan out is not healthy. Four years on an auto loan is normal. Seven years is not. Your loan shouldn't last longer than the car.

If you have a 30-year investment horizon, you should be pursuing higher returns than you can get on a Treasury.

Banks have embraced consumer banking and really want to attract that business. They're starting to realize there's a fine line between generating fee income and alienating customers.

Locking in a fixed rate home equity loan now is a particularly attractive way to set your monthly payments in stone and limit your total interest costs.