Wait, they charge fees for checking accounts? This has become a common refrain as more and more consumers around the country are all of a sudden finding monthly fees on their previously free checking accounts. Aside from initial bewilderment, people are responding with emotions that run the gamut all the way from anger to understanding. But, how should you really feel about added monthly fees on your bank account?

It’s understandable that you might at first be angry about having to shell out monthly payments for a service that used to free, but what if there was a good reason for the switch? That might change things for many of us and, of course, begs the question: Why are checking account fees gradually becoming as common as free checking once was?

There are millions of people across the United States who have to deal with the constant problem of not having enough money to pay their bills. They may have debt from student loans, credit cards, mortgage, cars and many other types of debt. However, when it comes down to it, the debt needs to be paid or the company that holds the debt will continue to hound you for a long time to come and your credit score could be severely damaged. That much you know, but what can you do about it?

For some, debt consolidation may be the answer. A first step in debt consolidation is to figure out exactly how much debt you have. Take a look at all of your debt. This means car loans, home loans, boat loans, RV loans, credit cards, gas cards, store cards, home equity loans and student debt. You may even have additional types of debt that do not apply to these categories. Check it out ASAP! You want to be sure that you are covered in case you end up having to pay the debt back.

Buying a house is a big (and exciting) step. But regardless of whether you’re a first-time home buyer or have bought before, there are some mistakes to avoid when purchasing a house. Here are a few to watch out for.

Getting in over your head

If there’s one mistake you want to avoid for sure when purchasing a house, it’s getting in over your head. You don’t want to buy more house than you can comfortably afford based on your current situation — not on some improved situation that you think you’ll probably be in down the road.

From time to time, knowledgeable sources from around the personal finance industry send us timely information, hoping to use Wallet Blog to better reach the general public. The following information about hurricane recovery tax benefits was sent to us by the California Society of CPAs, and we thought it would be both useful and of interest to our readers:

Hurricane Irene has done an estimated $7 -13 billion in damage over 10 East Coast states. Wind and flood damage alone could total about $5 billion and $2 billion, respectively, according to the Consumer Federation of America.

If you looked at your child’s back-to-school checklist and wondered how in the world you’d pay for everything on it, don’t worry, you’re not alone. About one out of every five Americans feels stressed about back-to-school shopping this year, according to a survey conducted by Chase, and 25% plan to spend less on school supplies this year than they did last year. What’s more, 34% of people intend to save on back-to-school shopping by re-using old supplies, while 26% plan to clip coupons and 25% say they’ll shop at discount stores. Those are all great ideas, which can lead to big savings. But why not throw the right rewards credit card into the mix and save up to another 6%?

As we all know, rewards credit cards often offer particularly high rewards on particular spending categories. And since the Island Approach to spending advocates having a few different rewards credit cards that complement each other and help you save on your biggest expenses, both your credit card arsenal and your back-to-school budget could benefit from the addition of a card with particularly attractive grocery and department store rewards or a card offering rewards at a mega-store where you can buy practically everything or a card that helps you save on office supplies.

As my three young kids gear up for the upcoming school year, it has me thinking of all the ways my wife and I save money on back-to-school shopping every year. Purchases like pencils, pens, notebooks, backpacks, clothing, shoes, electronics, books, you get the point! According to the National Retail Federation, the average American family is expected to spend on average $606.40 on clothes, shoes, supplies and electronics this year. This number is mind boggling to me. My wife and I spend way under half of that number. Hopefully these tips can keep you way below that number as well.

Shop at Discount Stores – We are talking about cheap stuff. Things like 4 glue sticks for a $1, .25 cent folders, and $3 notebooks. The brands are typically high quality and include Elmer’s, Mead, and Bic. The stores I am referring to include stores like Big Lots, Walmart, and The Dollar Store. They are must stops for school supplies like pens, pencils, notebooks, backpacks, and file folders. They have major bargains on back-to-school stuff starting in mid July running through September. They typically have better deals on school supplies than Target, and a lot better than stores like Office Depot and Office Max.

We recently took a look at the differences between money market accounts and money market funds. This week, to follow up on that discussion, we will examine what separates a money market account from a traditional savings account. After all, if we’re to make responsible banking decisions and effectively manage our money, we must understand the options available to us.

Overview
Both savings accounts and Money Market Deposit Accounts (MMDA) are essentially bank accounts insured by the federal government that allow you to safely deposit your money and garner interest. Accounts offered by banks are insured for up to $250,000 per depositor ($100,000 beginning in 2014) by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) insures those accounts offered by credit unions for the same amount.

Despite their similar names, money market accounts and money market funds are most certainly not the same thing. So let’s take a look at both to clear up whatever confusion might exist and provide insight into which will best suit your particular needs.

Money Market Accounts
A money market account, also known as a “money market deposit account,” is essentially a savings account. Money market accounts tend to pay more in interest than standard savings accounts and have higher minimum balance requirements but are interest-bearing bank accounts at their core, typically allow for limited check writing and debit card use, and most importantly, are explicitly insured by the FDIC—usually for up to $250,000.

Do you remember the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act? Probably not, so here’s a quick refresher. Signed into law by President Obama in 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act brought sweeping change to how financial markets are regulated in the United States.

Included in the act was a well-known provision called the “Risk-Based Pricing Rule”, which entitled many consumers to obtain free credit scores if they were either declined credit or offered less than favorable terms. If the lender didn’t provide a free score, they were required to at least send a notice that allowed applicants to obtain free credit reports instead.

Imagine for a second a U.S. president loses an election, decides he’s just not ready to give up his power yet, and concludes that he’ll remain president for another four years, whether the American people want him or not. How do you think that would go over with the voters? Not so well, I would guess. In fact, he might have to board up the White House’s doors and windows to deal with the resulting revolt.

Well, if you think about it, that’s essentially what’s going on right now with the board of directors system in this country. According to Business Week, more than 200 board members at public U.S. companies over the past three years have received less than 50% of the shareholder vote at elections, yet all but a few retained their seats. Two-thirds of the S&P 1,500 doesn’t even require that board members garner the approval of a majority of shareholders in order to keep their positions. But how could that possibly be?

Consumers have shown an obvious affinity for Groupon and its hundreds of copycats, but lost amidst their buzz is the notion that daily deals as we currently know them might not be the end-game for targeted local consumer marketing. The recent announcement of a partnership between American Express and Facebook to create “Link, Like, Love,” a deal-driven spending platform which takes advantage of the credit card company’s extensive customer base and purchase tracking capabilities as well as the social media giant’s unique reach into the lives of consumers, highlights the potential credit card companies have to change the game significantly. But, in the end, do credit card companies really have what it takes to be Groupon killers?

On Tuesday, American Express and Facebook launched Link, Like, Love and immediately became a serious contender to popular daily deal providers like Groupon and Living Social. The joint partnership allows consumers to link their American Express credit cards to their Facebook accounts and immediately access a virtual treasure trove of deals from leading national retailers and travel providers, including H&M, Dunkin’ Donuts, Sports Authority, Sheraton, Westin, Celebrity Cruises and Travelocity. Small businesses can also load their own deals through the service’s self-serve feature. Consumers simply select deals to load onto their Amex accounts, purchase the goods or services advertised, and automatically receive a statement credit.

“A what?” This just might be a common refrain from children a few years down the road in response to their parents discussing the good old days of magnetic stripe credit cards as if they were single-digit movie theater prices or some other relic of yesteryear. Indeed, the magnetic stripe credit card, common in the United States since the 1960s, might be on its way out. But this isn’t the first time the death knell has tolled for magstripe cards, so why should we believe it this time around?

Notable Replacement Efforts

An interesting new trend in the healthcare industry is primary care that patients buy directly from physicians, thereby removing insurance companies from the process and lowering costs for both the doctor and the patient.

Built upon the idea of concierge medical practices, doctors using this innovative model provide day-to-day care to patients who pay a monthly fee for the service. For $49-$130 a month patients receive preventive care, basic tests, treatment for chronic conditions, and non-life-threatening emergency services like X-rays and stitches. Patients are also able to get advice from doctors via e-mail, phone or video messaging, thereby saving both parties time and reducing the number of unnecessary office visits.

Feel bad about missing the British Airways offer for two free round-trip international flights a few months back? Well, here’s a chance to make up for it. Southwest Airlines recently announced a limited-time deal whereby consumers can score two free roundtrip flights simply by opening the Southwest Airlines Credit Card and making a single purchase.

Think that sounds too good to be true? Let’s take a closer look at the terms of this deal and see whether you are really free to move about the country with this credit card.

Credit cards provide the cheapest means of currency conversion. Hold on, before you balk at this statement and argue that someone working for a credit-oriented blog would of course make such a claim, let me tell you something: I have the facts to back it up. In fact, credit cards have the potential to save international travelers as much as 15% on currency exchange, according to a recent Currency Exchange Study by Card Hub.

Card Hub – using both online fact finding and anonymous phone calls – was able to determine the U.S. dollar-to-Euro exchange rates offered by Visa and MasterCard, the credit card networks with by far the largest coverage areas worldwide; 15 of the largest consumer banks in the United States; and Travelex, the most significant airport currency exchange service in the world. And aside from the mere fact that the payment type most conducive to international travel is a credit card, this study revealed that:

American consumers paid down 26% less credit card debt during the first quarter of 2011 than they did in the same period last year, according to a recent credit card debt study conducted by Card Hub – a fact which portends a significant rise in debt throughout the remainder of the year as well as the possibility of dangerous consumer overleveraging.

While one might consider any debt pay down to be a positive one, context is needed to explain why the Q1 2011 data is so concerning. During the first quarter of each year, consumers inevitably pay down a portion of their debt thanks to holiday bonuses, tax returns and a desire to rid themselves of balances remaining from holiday shopping. It’s normal.

Television is a big part of most of our lives.  We watch it to relax; we watch it when we’re bored; we watch it live; we watch it recorded; we watch it on our computers, phones, and tablets; in short, we watch it all the time.  In fact, the average American watches over 35 hours of TV a week, according to The Nielsen Company.  Now, television is great; don’t get me wrong.  It can be both entertaining and informative, but it can also cost you—both directly and indirectly.  Television, commercials in particular, directly influence our purchasing habits, and it also represents a significant sunk opportunity cost.  But how much does television consumption really cost us?  And how can we limit the financial impact?

Opportunity Cost

It’s the #1 question consumers have about their personal finances: How much do I need to retire? If you ask 10 different financial advisors this question, you’ll receive 10 different answers, only because the answer depends on many different variables. Putting the variables aside however, we’ve outlined a simple, but effective strategy to help ensure you’ll have enough to retire.

How Much Do You Need Save to Retire?

Throughout the financially tumultuous past few years, the credit card industry has been the subject of a great deal of attention in the press, Congress and the court of public opinion. The system admittedly was broken. Shady credit card companies, hiding behind a conspicuous lack of transparency, were using bait-and-switch tactics and confusing policies to take advantage of their customers. Now that the Credit CARD Act of 2009 has eliminated most of these issues, we can again being to appreciate just how useful credit cards can be. So, without further ado, 8 reasons why you should use a credit card as long as you trust yourself to spend wisely.

1. Credit building

You’re not going to believe how easy it is to cut your life insurance costs by as much as 25%.  You can easily save a bundle just by eliminating unnecessary or duplicate insurance you don’t need!

For starters, never – we repeat, never – think of insurance as an investment. Any insurance policy you use as an investment is costing you much more than you need to be paying. You can buy all sorts of investments that will treat you better than an “insurance” investment. We’ll talk more about these later.

No more than once a year, most people will repeat the insurance ritual. When it comes time to renew your homeowners insurance, you’ll likely do one of the following:

1. Write a check and renew the policy.
2. Do some research to compare insurance rates.

Number two is the better choice as it helps you to be sure you are going to be getting the best insurance rates. Don’t worry. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be switching insurance companies every year or two. If you find a better rate, call your current insurance provider and let them try to match the rate.

Oh how quickly things change. For years, the American Express Blue Cash was my credit card of choice. It offered 1% cash back on gas and groceries and 0.5% on all other purchases up to $6,500 in annual spending, but that’s not what made it so impressive. After $6,500, bonus cash back terms kicked in, taking the base cash back rate to 1.5% and the gas-and-groceries rate to an impressive 5%. Needless to say, the Blue Cash was hard to beat…at least until something in the market changed and the Blue Cash lost its appeal.

You see, other products emerged that had rewards structures able to not only compete with the Blue Cash’s earning rate but also beat this once-dominant spending vehicle in terms of rewards earning simplicity. There’s the Bank of America Accelerated Cash Rewards Card, which offers 1.25% on all purchases; the Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards Card, with 2% on gas and groceries and 1% else; the Chase Freedom Visa, with up to 5% cash back on rotating spending categories; and last but not least the Capital One Venture Rewards card, which is basically a 2% cash back credit card when miles are redeemed for any travel-related purchase.

Personal finance software takes ideas from big business to help you save time and money. Chart s of accounts, tables, and graphs can help households better understand their cash’s inflows and outflows, but does that understanding lead to better decisions and ultimately savings? Often, knowing where your money goes can help you curb extra spending and save on expenses. If you’re not dealing with business-scale revenue and expenses though, how necessary are all of these software packages’ extra features? Do you really need three charts and a graph to tell you that you shouldn’t have spent $300 on ice cream last month? In the worst case scenario, you may find yourself spending more time and money than you save.

So, how can you guarantee that your personal finance software is paying dividends for you? Ultimately, you need to judge any software package by two criteria: price, and ease of use. Any software that comes recommended by anybody and that you are likely to come across is going to have the features you need, which are essentially expense tracking and categorizing, so what you need is to guarantee that you won’t lose more than you save in the process of using it.

In my opinion, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is one of the best travel rewards credit cards on the market. After all, it’s essentially a 2% cash back card when miles are redeemed for any travel-related purchases charged on your card. This means that for every $10,000 you charge on this card, you earn 20,000 miles, which can in turn be redeemed for a $200 travel-related purchase. All you have to do is call Capital One, identify the purchase you wish to redeem your miles for, and that’s that. Needless to say, the Venture Card is my primary spending vehicle. And while I would be hard-pressed to replace it, there is one thing that could bring the Venture Card down: Capital One’s customer service.

This became readily apparent when my fiancé recently tried to redeem her miles for a plane ticket to Greece. This experience revealed a number of disturbing facts about Capital One’s customer service as well as the inner-workings of the Venture Rewards program.