dustyscout8 said:Can someone please walk me through this—I’m sitting here with a bill from $1233 right in front of me, and I need to wire the funds to the account for Land Surveying Associates via my online banking. However, every time I attempt to process it, the system throws an error. When I input "01" for the payment model and enter the reference number and account details, it keeps flagging the transaction, claiming that for the second data field, the control number must be 2. Please, verify this for me. I am genuinely hesitant to proceed because there is absolutely no guidance provided on which model or reference number a standard citizen should use when paying a private firm or a small business. Help me out; I really don't want to accidentally mismanage nearly $4,000.😢
There’s really no reason to be worried; online banking is actually designed with these kinds of features specifically to make things easier for you. So, I guess you should just enter model 02 and hit Confirm. If you've double-checked everything else and made sure all those details are spot on, then I guess you really don't have anything to worry about.
Steven Palmer2 said:Here’s the situation... I’m sending my cousin $100. What I really need to know is how they calculate the conversion rate, since I have to bring in USD and he'll be receiving it in dollars... specifically, what exchange rate am I looking at so I know exactly how much cash I need to set aside to make sure he gets his full $100?
silverdriver14 said:If I'm sending money from the States and I need to send Euros, can I actually send Euros or am I stuck using Dollars?
So, if you're the one sending the money, you'll be paying in US dollars, obviously. But I guess you can actually ask the person handling the transaction—like, whoever is working at the bank or the USPS office—to get in touch with Western Union for you. That way, they can use their specific exchange rate to figure out exactly how many dollars you need to put down so that the person on the other end receives the exact amount they're expecting in their local currency. It might be a little extra work, but it probably makes things easier, I suppose.
James Rogers53 said:And who’s actually guaranteeing I’ll walk away with more than what a standard savings account offers?
Those kinds of money market returns were a fluke—they won't stay that high for long. This year, we're probably looking at maybe 4-5%, and that's about it. Not a bad spread, I guess, especially since you can pull your cash out or toss more in whenever you feel like it.
Just looking at the stats for money market funds since they first launched. Banks have been cutting mortgage rates lately—well, some of them, anyway, though I don't have a mortgage myself so I couldn't say for sure—but they've been dipping savings rates too. When it comes to investing in these funds, banks don't really have that much sway over them (if they even have any impact at all), and basically all money market funds have shown steady returns since they started.
Maturity date 3/15/2011. Type standard Principal $50,000.00 Total interest 2,557.16 Balance 52,557.16
ERSTE MONEY MONEY MARKET FUND
Fund currency: USD Initial share price: 100.00 Investment start date 1/1/2009. Share price at start of period USD 125.10 Investment end date 12/31/2009. Share price at end of period USD 133.80 Payment amount USD 50,000.00
Number of days held 364 Return for holding period 6.95% Annualized return 6.97% Number of shares purchased 399.6803 Value of shares at start of period USD 50,000.00 Value of shares at end of period USD 53,477.22 Profit (USD) 3,477.22
BANK OF AMERICA MONEY MARKET FUNDS
Bank of America Money Market Fund* 129.85 0.02% 3.73% 7.55% Bank of America Euro Money Market Fund* 122.69 0.02% 7.00% 5.27%
I don't really have anything to say right now, I guess. Just hanging out. kaže: Could you please show me that money market fund offering a 6% monthly return? Thanks!
James Rogers53 said:Yeah, right. Even Chase was seeing returns around 0.61% back in 2009. 🙄Those days of "massive" money market yields are long gone...
brightranger52 said:OMG, so that’s at least 72% annually! 😉 Since Zions Bank money markets were sitting at a measly 0.61% back in 2010, it is high time they actually started delivering some real returns.😎
Nicholas Turner said:That works out to at least 101.2% annually! Honestly—even hitting the jackpot in the Powerball wouldn't be a better bet than this.
My bad everyone, just a slip of the tongue. I mean, I guess you could see money market funds pulling in maybe around 6-9% annual returns these days. I mean, I was just crunching some numbers earlier, and I guess it's possible you guys could actually be pulling in way more cash if, you know, you did things a little differently. $17 They kept that money sitting in a money market fund for a whole year, which honestly ended up being way better than any interest rate you could find at any bank here in the States.
vividcanyon37 said:So, I was just on the phone with a customer service rep from JP Morgan Chase today. I've been using my overdraft, and looking at my statement, it looks like they're slashing my limit by an amount larger than my actual monthly paycheck (about $500)! The guy explained how they calculate the overdraft limit—they take my last three paychecks, average them out, and then multiply that average by two (since I’m on their Balance package). But here's the kicker: back in November, I got some backdated child benefit payments, and because of some weird internal logic, they counted that as regular income. That bumped up my "average" salary, which inflated my overdraft limit. I'm such an idiot—I didn't bother checking the fine print when I switched packages, so I thought I had a standard three-month cushion. I was absolutely floored when I realized my entire next paycheck is basically gone just to cover this hole, and I'll still be short. Now I'm stuck playing musical chairs with my money—moving funds around and pulling from my credit card just to stay afloat. And get this: did you guys know the interest rate on overdrafts at JP Morgan Chase is 13.49%? I honestly thought it was way lower. My credit card is at 12.99%, but then they hit you with a 3% transaction fee. I really need to ditch these cards. When you're backed into a corner, you start grasping at straws, but seriously, what is the point of working just to hand it all over to the bank? I'm looking at my statement right now—$12 in interest, $20 for account maintenance fees, and it just keeps piling up month after month. If I do the math, I'm basically handing the bank half a paycheck every year...🤷
silentowl9 said:What do you mean "on a whim"? When you sign that contract, the rules for how they handle an unauthorized overdraft are already set in stone. What do you expect them to do, just forgive it? If someone really gets stuck, there's usually room to negotiate, but like apatrit said, you have to step up immediately. You can't wait months to deal with it...
That sounds incredibly weird. Why would they make you wait a month or two?🤷 And they definitely should have let you know they turned down your request. Either it's unprofessional, or someone at that branch just didn't know what they were doing...
And you guys honestly think he just discovered fire or something? Not really. It's just that smart people—or folks who actually understand how an overdraft works—tend to handle things before they spiral out of control. They don't treat walking into a branch like visiting a slaughterhouse once they're already deep in the red and it might be too late. At the end of the day, the bank didn't put them in that spot; they did that to themselves. Just to be clear, we're talking about banks that don't just lower your credit limit on their own whim.
What you guys ran into is basically just how "standard" banks operate. Basically, they calculate your total overdraft limit based on an average of your last three paychecks, so if you don't have steady income coming in, you won't qualify for an overdraft, which means they end up canceling it altogether.
Nothing really new or out of the ordinary here, I guess.
Anthony Cox5 said:I’ve been scrolling through various threads on this sub lately, and while I plan to keep digging for info, I figured I’d throw out a few questions first.
So, last year my wife and I bought an apartment. We used a mix of our own savings and a fixed-rate mortgage with a monthly payment we could actually live with.
We still have a certain amount sitting in a housing savings account at Zions Bank—that was a requirement to unlock their preferred action credit.
Even though my wife took a pay cut during the recession (I wasn't working a 9-5 back then), keeping our debt obligations low and cutting back on spending kept us in the black. Our financial situation is steady now, but we're still in recovery mode and continuing to furnish the place.
At my new job, the pay is decent and I’ve finally started seeing a surplus at the end of the month. Some of that goes toward home improvements, but I'm looking for options centered around two main goals:
a) Short-term savings—looking at a one to two-year window—essentially building up enough to, say, put a down payment on a reliable new car rather than some junker.
- For something like that, would I be better off with a standard savings account, investment funds, or something else entirely? Ideally, I want the flexibility to fluctuate my monthly contributions.
b) Starting to build a reserve and establishing a level of financial security that can eventually be repurposed for other things.
- In this case, I’d probably stick with the housing savings route.
Does this all make sense, or am I completely off base here? Thanks for any insight.
Money market funds seem to be climbing pretty steadily, and they don't really deal with those crazy crashes you see with bond or stock funds, maybe seeing something like a 6-9% bump monthly. Plus, there aren't any entry or exit fees to worry about. I guess you can pull your cash whenever you need it, but the interest rate is still probably better than anything you'd find in a standard savings account or a CD.
Mark Thompson14 said:The exact same thing happened to me tonight. They sent over updated login credentials via email, so this glitch is definitely on their end. Honestly, the whole service is a complete disaster...
Did you guys at least manage to get logged in "normally" just now?
Nicholas Green13 said:Yeah, well, tried that and it's a total bust. I went down to the local branch today to explain that I did exactly what they asked on the website, but instead of helping, they just nuked my online access. The teller actually had the nerve to snap at me, claiming I entered the new info wrong. So, I pull out the paperwork showing everything was filled out perfectly—she tries to type it in herself and *her* access gets blocked too. Then she goes running to the branch manager, some bigshot ego-tripper, who apologizes to me with that condescending tone like I'm the one who messed up. They sent me incomplete, garbage data in the first place! Just a heads-up: watch your step when entering this stuff, because now I'm locked out until Monday while I wait for them to send actual, correct information.
I'd really appreciate it if the original poster could take another look at what I wrote before jumping back in with more comments. Look, I actually dealt with the exact same mess, but I just called the number I had on file, verified who I was, and they emailed me a fresh username and password. Everything worked fine after that.
The real issue here is that most people nowadays don't seem to grasp that any money you pull from a bank is essentially just a loan—a totally legal one, mind you—that you're eventually going to have to pay back. So, just to build on what was said earlier; this guy started out by opening an account at Bank of America, ended up overdrawn, and then the teller (whatever her actual job title was) basically played some power move, claiming they’d already flagged his account before he could even talk to a lawyer, and told him he better come in to work out a deal. And let's not forget that Bank of America, or rather the whole group, reported some pretty massive losses last year. I'd say you should steer clear of banks that arbitrarily hike or lower your overdraft limits on your checking account (think Chase or Bank of America...) because when you sign those papers, you're basically giving them permission to grab whatever they need if you hit that unauthorized negative balance. And honestly, believe me when I say they couldn't care less if you were out on medical leave for the last two months and had a smaller paycheck; all they care about is getting their money back, along with all that interest they "lent" you.
Andrew Wright74 said:So, they rolled out this new way to log into Online banking. Now, you put in your old login and password, some new info pops up, and then—on that same page—it asks you to log back in. If you happen to miss copying down those new details, you’re basically stuck. Because once you try to type them in to get back in, this stupid system forces you into a password change screen that (get this!) demands you enter your current password AND a new one...
Now, say you didn't write down that password you just got. You can't finish the process, so obviously, you try starting over from scratch, hoping the new login and password will pop up again. But nope... it won't show the new password anymore. Instead, it just says the password has already been changed and won't display it ever again!!!
Wait, how the heck was it changed if I couldn't even finish the steps and canceled the whole thing?!?
I call the bank, explain the mess, and they tell me to just come into a local branch... Like, seriously? This is clearly a bug in your software. Just reset my password so I can start over! But no, they can't do it. They tell me to send an email and they'll "see what they can do." So I send the email, call them back, and get the exact same runaround. I even asked to speak to the Chief Information Officer at JPMorgan Chase, but they claimed they couldn't give me that info. I actually threatened to take them to the press since a CIO's name is public info, and only then did they finally give it to me. Honestly, the whole thing is just pathetic and super messy!
The explanation was pretty clear, I guess. And honestly, if things get messy, you can just call 1-800-555-555, verify who you are, and they'll just shoot all those new details over to your email. Then you just log in with that, swap out your password, and you're good to go.
swifthawk23 said:Both of my parents spent my entire life ignoring me or tearing me down—honestly, I didn't walk away from that upbringing with much besides one hard-earned lesson: don't end up like them. To them, nothing matters more than their own immediate comfort, and they'll step over anyone to get it.
I guess I could say I had a similar experience, though it was more like they just avoided me and neglected me; I was never really that kid who mattered to them. Now I'm sitting here wondering; maybe the reason I value honesty and family so much—and why I want to build a totally different kind of home one day—is because of that, or maybe there's some other influence at play. My dad never really figured out how to be a father (which, obviously, won't affect how I am when I have kids!) and my mom checked out on me from a really young age. So, looking at how some moms treat their kids these days, I honestly just feel bad for them, and I see parts of myself in those situations.
My dad and I pretty much don't talk, unless it’s some extreme emergency, and even then, half the time I just end up hanging up on him before we can even get going. I honestly just can't deal with the constant lecturing about how he’s my father and how I should be the one reaching out first, or why I haven't called him lately. The guy hasn't done a single thing for me in my life, so I don't owe him anything, and just because he's "family" doesn't give him any right to look down on me or act all patronizing. If anything, all I learned from him was how to actually treat women with respect and value them. I also learned to be honest, which, I guess, has cost me some close friends here and there, but I just can't bring myself to be anyone else.
Robin Walker said:Alright, so we've established that banks want to follow the rules, and the rules basically say they can squeeze people at every turn. What I really want to know is: am I going to run into trouble if someone sends me money and claims it's for something I sold them online (or anything else that isn't taxable), and then I confirm that when the bank calls? Anyone? 😁
I'd rather trust people's word and pay my taxes than deal with reservation fees. 😉 I wasn't born yesterday. 😁
I mean, you shouldn't really have any issues. It’s not really on you to justify the transaction; it's more on him since he's the one who bought something from you through some site and just sent the payment. As long as you can show there was a sale involved—which I'm guessing won't be massive amounts anyway—you should be totally fine.
urbanpilot said:thanks for the reply. So, what’s the deal with the new username and password? I’m still logging in with my old credentials.
Just keep logging in with your old credentials for now. I guess once they've got everything squared away, they'll probably just put up a notification saying the changes are live.
urbanpilot said:Quick question about making a transfer to someone else's checking account at a different bank: Is the format basically bank routing number followed by the recipient's account number? And should I leave the model and reference number fields blank? I'm hoping I set this up right and don't lose my $333. This was my first time sending money directly to someone's personal account here in the States.🤷 If anyone actually knows how this works, let me know.
You did it just fine, so don't worry, you aren't going to lose any money.
I mean, if I end up turning out just like my old man—and honestly, I’m pretty worried that certain things might pull me toward that darker side—it’s probably not gonna be great. Even though he and I only really talk maybe once every six months, and even then I feel like I’ve said my piece, I'm starting to realize more and more that I won't necessarily inherit his worst traits. Or, well, maybe I won't anymore. I think I can just take those bad experiences and learn how to do things better instead.
I’m not gonna whine here. I won't complain, and I definitely won't go dragging anyone's name through the mud. I guess I'm just wondering if it's actually possible to learn both the absolute best and the absolute worst traits from your parents, and then somehow end up as a fully realized individual—you know, keeping all those great qualities you picked up while somehow shaking off most of the bad stuff as you grow up?