Some really good companies have been knocked in recent days, including QCOM, GILD, 3m (MMM), BRKA and some others. Stocks on sale. Go bargain shopping today. Good Chanos idea: Short HP and Dell, and I thnk maybe maybe Apple. Cramer spoke , “The hatred of Apple’s management is so palpable .” them’s pretty strong words. See also what I wrote yesterday.
Searching for a modern bank — part 2. From yesterday, this is what we’re looking for:
+ Photo deposits. Take a photo of your check. Email it to your bank. Bingo, no more visits. No more printing mailing labels. No more scurrying for envelopes. No more postage. No more rushing to the post office.
+ Bill pay. I can pay my bills online, like PayPal.
+ Online wire sending. I can sit at home, and send wires. I can type my own information. I don’t have to deal with a bored, banking employee moron. Sending wires is free.
+ Mobile banking. I can see my balances online and I can do banking with my iPhone.
+ I don’t get charged for incoming wires. (I’ve never understood why I get charged. It seems to me that my bank would want money. Why would they penalize me for bringing them money? Answer: they don’t think.
+ No fees for taking money out of ATMs anywhere in the U.S.
I am still looking. So, please keep sending your emails and adding comments. Here are some I’ve received:
+ Several people love USAA in San Antonio. They used to be just for the military. But now they’re for everyone.
+ From Lucky Marr:
EverBank.com I have encouraged you to use them before. I handle many domestic and international needs with EverBank. Never been to a branch…don’t know if they even have one. Never a charge for international wire transfers through their WorldMarkets. Never a charge for incoming domestic wire transfers…they do charge for outgoing domestic. Never a charge for domestic ATM withdrawals, if the one you use charges, like $6. in Hawaii, it is automatically refunded into your account. They only charge the VISA exchange fee of 1% on international ATM withdrawals. However, only a few int’l banks charge an ATM fee which is not waived. I have bought and held gold without fees. Deposits can be made online and if a client makes deposits into your account and it is the same each month, they send you an email plus snail mail receipt. Wonderful people to work with. They also do mortgages, CDs and etc. which I never use. They do pay a small amount of interest on your checking account. I do have other banks and a credit union if I absolutely must go in and talk with someone.
Check with AMEX on their buy one get two deals. They have changed and now may only offer a “certificate” which is tied to your anniversary date and you get one a year. Depends on the type of AMEX card you hold and pay for. Their most expensive Platinum Charge cards offer the most.
+ From Patrick Buchanan:
+ From RichL
Credit Unions are preferred providers in my book. I use Alliant Credit Union,based in Chicago – I’m not near a branch. http://www.alliantcreditunion….
They have a checking account that pays .65%, and the website is robust.
For a 1% interest savings account with good EFT access, try Barclays Bank.
At Fidelity, you should investigate their American Express card, which rebates 2% on all purchases directly to your fidelity account.
For gas purchases, use Fort Knox Federal Credit Union’s VISA, which gives a 5% cash rebate on gas purchases to the account at month end. http://www.fkfcu.org/
To keep up on changes in banks, try http://www.depositaccounts.com…
+ From Wayne
For God’s sake, find and join a decent credit union. Surely you must have them in NYC. ALL of the features you seek have been available to credit union members for years, and there is no membership fee either. I belong to two locally, but one would really be enough. Keep the Fidelity account for the major investment activity.
USAA Federal Savings Bank in San Antonio, TX. Managed by ex Military officers. They started as USAA auto insurance, now the bench mark company for auto insurance. They have been my only bank for over 30 years while living in Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Jacksonville. Have been doing online deposits for 2 years as they are a leader in correctly applying the newer technologies. Have had car insurance with USAA since 1967 while in Panama. End of last year received distributions totaling $843.65 from my subscriber account as it is a member-owned company. I still have a positive balance of $5,061.40 in my account.
+ From Frank Derfler:
Paul is absolutely correct. Today USAA has loosened their membership criteria (a shrinking military). If you qualify. ( see usaa.com) it is a great bank… Except they do charge to send wire transfers .
+ From Pete Howley:
You can not beat USAA for any of their services.
Capital Communications Credit Union: Based in Albany, been around forever, completely transformed themseleves from a ‘Telco’ Credit Union into bricks and mortar branches within the Capital Region. Great, great customer service. Been a member for 24 years and have only visited a branch 5 times since I’m 2 hours away. Technical-savy credit union.
I use a combo of both – TD Bank and CapitalOneDirect (the old ING). I have them linked so i can easily transfer cash to Capital one to earn something on my cash. TD has great hours, 7 days a week, free coin counting, drive through open until 7 or 8pm, etc but their rates on cash and CD’s are low and they do charge those pesky wire fees. I don’t send many wire but do have many of my bills paid automatically on CapitalOne.
I have accounts with multiple online banks. They are ok, but in my experience you don’t have to go to online bank unless you are looking for a better yield. Chase has most of what you asked for: photo deposits, mobile banking, bil pay, online wire sending (they do have ATM fees though). Check also Fidelity – I think you are using them as a broker but they have also banking accounts
Here’s how not to begin your pitch for money:
1. “The global market for XYZ (whatever it is you’re selling) is $450 trillion and is poorly-served by the existing products.” We’re gonna develop some that will serve the gigantic markets.
2. Here are the brilliant founders who’ve had huge success in their careers, but not enough to fund their own new company to the tune of $500,000. When questioned, the excuses range from “divorce” — “she cleaned me out” to “I had a very small share. I was only CEO.” to “I made some bad investments” to “the dot.com bubble wiped me out.”
Useful computer tips:
+ Using Outlook? Change your outgoing server SMTP to 587. You’ll find that on the Advanced tab under More Settings in your Change Email settings. Also run Scanpst on your Outlook.pst file and then compress it.
+ Using Firefox? Here’s a list of their most popular plug-ins. Click here. Their most popular is Adblock Plus.
+ Norton Internet Security is the best software for blocking bad stuff. I use it every day. It works flawlessly. Worth every penny of its $40 a year price. Click here.
+ Three ways to “upgrade” your present laptop — Add more memory, replace your used keyboard with a new one (eBay is best) and add an mSATA drive. For more on that, click here.
+ Set your laptop power management to quick screen dimming. Leaving your screen on when you’re not using it will dim the screen over time, making it no longer fun to use.
Best advice: Do not buy a new machine if it’s working fine and the only thing wrong with it is that it’s “a bit slow.” One of the laptops I used is running Window 2000 — it must be ten years old. It’s works flawlessly — in many ways better and more reliably than Windows 7. If you want more clarification on any of the four points, send me an email.
The world’s most hated cities. This is funny. Least worst is Belize City. Worst is Tijuana. But Los Angeles, Sydney and Melbourne ar eon the list. click here.
Great Broadway plays we’ve just seen. Lucky Guy and Orphans. More in a minute.
Lucky Guy stars Tom Hanks. Orphans stars Alec Baldwin. I preferred Orphans. So did Susan.
Harry Newton who has recently read learned learned explanations on why the market keeps going up, including “Bernanke wants it that way.” The best explanation? “it’s gong up because it’s going up.”
Correction, Harry. My comment yesterday was “You can not beat USAA for any of their services.”
The other bank comments under my name above were made by someone else.
EverBank has 4 branches in their HQ city of Jacksonville. Per Forbes, Jacksonville is #3 in the USA for new job opportunities. Can also watch NFL football at EverBank Field in Jacksonville.
For my firewall and antivirus I use ZoneAlarm by Check Point. It works perfectly for my two computers and it is free.
Harry,
As a Berkshire shareholder I assume you are going to the BRK shareholders meeting? It is not to be missed. In one day you’ll learn more about investing than from any five books you read.