Why bank overdrafts may be a bad deal for you

Written by Prakash Menon


Continued from page 1

A "convenience" for customers? Not at these rates.

What does this remind you of? It reminds me of payday loans and cash advances. That’srepparttar other kind of lending that costs you such sky-high APRs. In fact, if you choose to repay a cash advance on due date and not roll it over, you'll likely be charged far less than whatrepparttar 111932 banks charge you for an overdraft.

It gets even worse. Banks have software that ensures that your largest value checks and debits get processed first. There may be some logic to that. However, this arrangement also means that when there are insufficient funds in your account, instead of paying one overdraft charge on one large check, you pay several charges on several smaller checks!

Plus, most customers don't even realize that they are overdrawn untilrepparttar 111933 bank notifies them about it.

Consumer advocates say that banks are perfectly aware that many people barely make it from payday to payday. These customers typically have very low balances. Rather than offer them a service that would be in their interests, banks extract high fees from them to cover bounced checks.

If you are caught short between paychecks, consider arranging funds from other sources rather than turn to overdraft protection. The best solution torepparttar 111934 problem is to systematically build up cash balances so that you don't face such a situation inrepparttar 111935 first place.

Prakash Menon is a financial expert and writer specializing in managing personal debt and providing wealth building solutions. He has written on signature loans, personal debt management and other topics. See http://www.payday-cashadvances.net for related articles.


Fees paid to brokers are far too high

Written by Mark Anthony Harrison


Continued from page 1

But advances in technology mean obtainingrepparttar required information is now relatively straightforward so how on earth can lenders still justify paying fees of 2.75% or more?

Consumer protection is paramount. Those lenders that continue to hide behindrepparttar 111931 excuse thatrepparttar 111932 fees they pay impact only on their own profit and loss accounts are fooling nobody. Inrepparttar 111933 end it'srepparttar 111934 client that pays.

It's a sorry state of affairs when a lender's only method of attracting business is to pay a high fee.

The soonerrepparttar 111935 Financial Services Authority wakes up and takes a look at some ofrepparttar 111936 players in this often murky sector,repparttar 111937 better.

It's time for a change and we need it right NOW.

Mark Anthony Harrison has worked in financial services for over 16 years, mostly in banking but more recently with his own company http://www.capitalmortgagesolutions.co.uk.


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