Category Chapter 5

Jul 18 2015

Bitcoins or a Credit Card?

Do you shop online?  Have you seen websites that allow you to pay with bitcoins?

Beware of the Bitcoin (virtual currency) risks!!

  • Values go up and down based on demand.
  • Payments made with virtual currencies aren’t reversible.
  • You do not have the same legal protections as more traditional payment methods.

For more information, click here.

Teaching Suggestions

  • Ask students if they have purchased products or services with bitcoins and what has been their experience.
  • Ask students if they check out the seller’s reputation before a purchase with bitcoins.

Discussion Questions

  1. Should the payment with bitcoins go directly to the seller or a payment processor?
  2. Does a payment through a payment processor offer any protections?
  3. If you receive damaged merchandise, will you get a refund in virtual currency, U.S. dollars, or store credit?
  4. If you have a problem with bitcoin-related product or service, where should you file a complaint?
Jun 10 2015

Saver Survey

Each year, America Saves (www.americasaves.org) conducts a survey or its program participants to determine the attitudes and behaviors of savers.  The most recent study reports that:

  • People save mainly for their emergency fund, retirement, or repaying debt.
  • People in formal savings programs, such as America Saves, report saving larger amounts.
  • Married respondents saved much more than single respondents.
  • Females and males have different saving purposes; females favored saving for an emergency fund, males favored retirement saving.
  • Savers involved in America Saves are saving more, are more confident in their ability to manage their money, and are managing their debt better while feeling more optimistic about their financial situation.

The complete Savers Survey report is available here.

Teaching Suggestions

  • Have students talk to others about their savings habits and goals.
  • Have students prepare a graph to monitor their savings activities.

Discussion Questions 

  1. What actions can help encourage a person to have more effective savings habits?
  2. Why does being involved in an organized savings program result in more savings and better money management activities?
May 23 2015

Is This Debt Collector Legitimate?

How can you verify whether or not a debt collector is legitimate?  Below are a few warning signs that signal a debt collection scam:

  • The debt collector threatens you. Legitimate debt collectors probably won’t claim that they will have you arrested or claim that they or their employee are law enforcement officers.
  • The debt collector refuses to give you information about your debt or trying to collect a debt you do not recognize.
  • The debt collector refuses to give a mailing address or phone number.
  • The debt collector asks you for sensitive personal financial information.

Tell the caller that you refuse to discuss any debt until you get a written “validation notice.”  This notice must include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor, and a description of certain rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

For additional information and to learn more on debt collection practices, click here.

Teaching Suggestions

  • Ask students to draft a sample complaint letter explaining that the debt is not legitimate and demanding the debt collector stop contacting you.
  • Ask students to compile a list of governmental and nongovernmental agencies where consumers can send debt collection complaints.

Discussion Questions

  1. Do all states require debt collectors to be licensed?
  2. If the debt collector is licensed in your state and he/she is not acting properly, what are your remedies?
  3. Who enforces the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and how this law protects consumers?
Mar 18 2015

Prepaid Industry Scorecard

Millions of consumers use prepaid cards for spending, saving, and managing their money. Card issuers offer diverse products to meet the needs of users and prepaid cards vary immensely across the industry. Such diversity is beneficial to consumers, provided that the overall quality of products is high and that providers continually strive to meet the needs of consumers.

At the same time, it is important at this point in the industry’s development to take stock of the quality of products in the marketplace and to encourage prepaid card issuers to pursue policies that actively improve consumers’ financial lives. Drawing upon the framework of CFSI’s Compass Principles and the definitions of quality articulated in the Compass Guide to Prepaid, this report assesses the level of quality in the current prepaid card marketplace and provides a set of benchmarks against which future progress can be measured.

Eighteen General Purpose Reloadable (GPR) cards are analyzed in this report. These cards collectively represent approximately 90% of the total GPR card marketplace and include the largest players in the industry, as well as a sampling of smaller programs with particularly innovative cards. To develop scores for the industry as a whole, these eighteen cards were assessed against the recommendations outlined in the Compass Guide to Prepaid. Quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis were employed to generate scores that accurately capture the quality of products in the prepaid card marketplace.

For additional information on the Prepaid Card Industry Scorecard, click here:

Teaching Suggestions

  • Have students research various fees associated with prepaid debit cards.
  • Have students create a short video that communicates actions to avoid fees for prepaid debit cards.

Discussion Questions 

  1. What are the main differences between traditional and prepaid debit cards?
  2. Explain situations when people might use a prepaid debit card.
  3. Are there certain age demographics that would use prepaid debit cards more?
Jan 31 2015

What is your Personal Savings Rate?

The average personal savings, as a percentage of income, in the United States, has averaged about five percent.  To calculate your own personal savings rate, take these steps:

  1.  Total your savings for the year, including non-retirement savings, personal retirement contributions, and employer retirement contributions. The amount could be negative if you took on more debt than the total of your savings.
  1. Determine your total income by adding your take-home pay (after subtracting income taxes) to the amount your employer contributed to your retirement account.
  1. Calculate the personal savings rate by dividing (1) by (2).

For additional information on personal savings rates, click here.

Also, to see information about savings rates and other statistics, click here.

Teaching Suggestions

  • Have students calculate their person savings rate.
  • Have students interview several people to determine actions that are commonly taken to increase a person’s savings rate. 

Discussion Questions 

  1. What actions might be taken to increase savings?
  2. Describe financial difficulties that may occur when a person has inadequate savings.
Jan 7 2015

52-Week Money Challenge

Do you want to take the 52-Week Money Challenge? 

Before saying no, consider it is a simple way to accumulate $1,378 over the next year.  Before saying yes, realize that while it is easy to save small amounts at the beginning of the year, it becomes increasingly harder to save larger amounts at the end of the year on a weekly basis.   Take a look at the table below to see how your money accumulates each week.

 

image source

 

For more information, click here. 

Teaching Suggestions

You may want to use the information in this blog post and the original article to:

  • Stress that even small amounts of money over time can increase the amount available for savings or investing.
  • Discuss how monitoring your spending habits can “find” the money that can be used for savings and investing.
  • Talk about the need for financial discipline when managing, saving, and investing your money.

Discussion Questions

  1. In the above table, you begin by depositing $1 the first week, then each week, the amount you save increases. Where can you find the money needed to fund this type of savings program–especially toward the end of the year?
  2. Assuming you achieved the 52-week challenge and you now have $1,378 dollars in the bank. Would you leave it in the bank, pay your bills, or invest the money?  Justify your choice.
  3. After completing one 52-week challenge, would you take another money challenge? Why or Why Not?
Dec 10 2014

Cardless ATMs

Bank customers may now access ATMs without a debit card. Using a smartphone app, both a cash code (an 8-digit number) and the PIN (4 digits) will be required for cash.   App customers may authorize another person from phone contacts to obtain money. The recipient will be sent a cash code to allow withdrawal of an approved amount.

Banks also offer a credit card “lock and limit” app to control security and spending.  This feature is used to block overseas transactions where the card isn’t present.  In addition, a small business app that can accept on-the-spot payments, create estimates and invoices immediately and help to manage cash flow.

For additional information on cardless ATMs go to:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/technology/commbank-launches-cardless-atms/story-e6frgakx-1226900643013?nk=bef92ef2e3c07bd1787f1279b087e2b6

Teaching Suggestions

  • Have students research various mobile banking technology that might be used in the future.
  • Ask students to describe their experiences with various mobile banking apps.

 Discussion Questions 

  1. What are benefits of cardless ATMs for consumers and business?
  2. Describe potential problems with cardless ATMs.
  3. What other types of mobile banking apps might be developed in the future?
Dec 6 2014

Banking at the Post Office

Nearly 90 million people in the United States have no bank account or rely on expensive financial services from check-cashing services, payday loan companies, or pawnshops.  To help address this situation, the U.S. Postal Service is considering a program to provide financial services to the population that is underserved by traditional banks.

The USPS, which already offers money orders to customers, plans an expanded product line that would include reloadable prepaid debit cards, mobile transactions, domestic and international money transfers, a Bitcoin exchange, and possibly, small loans. As a result of their size, USPS loan rates would be lower than pawnshops or payday loan enterprises. Post office branches in low-income neighborhoods could provide services to customers in areas no longer served by traditional banks.

Opposition to this action will occur from the banking industry. However, compelling evidence is offered that many Americans lack trust in or access to banks.

While going to the post office for financial services may seem strange in the United States, about one billion people in 50 countries bank through postal system offices.  These include India, Pakistan, Japan, Brazil, Malawi, and Kenya.

For additional information on banking at the post office, go to:

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21601026-americas-postal-service-ponders-foray-financial-services-put-your-money

Click to access rarc-wp-14-007.pdf

Teaching Suggestions

  • Have students research the banking services offered by postal services in other countries.
  • Have students create interview questions that they might ask someone who does not use a traditional bank.

 Discussion Questions 

  1. What factors would influence the need for the postal service to consider offering financial services?
  2. Describe possible benefits and concerns associated with the U.S. Postal Service offering financial services.
  3. Other than the postal service, how might underserved and unserved banking consumers obtain financial services?
Sep 10 2014

Home Depot Data Breach May Top $50 Million

“Home Depot spokeswoman Paula Drake said ‘protecting our customers’ information is something we take extremely seriously.’” 

At the time of this blog, it is not clear how many Home Depot stores or shoppers were involved, but this breach could be one of the largest data breaches to ever hit a retailer.  It is also estimated that the cyber thieves made an estimated $50 million from this breach by selling credit card numbers and personal information.

Home Depot and many other retailers including Target, P. F. Chang’s, Neiman Marcus, and other companies, have all experienced similar data breaches in recent months.  To combat this problem, many companies are beginning to use a new “chip and pin” technology.  Already in use in Europe, the new technology contains a chip in your credit or debit card with account information, requires the user to use pin identification, and is nearly impossible to counterfeit.  Because the new technology has dual verification, card transactions are much, much safer for both retailer and customer.

For more information go to http://www.cbsnews.com/news/home-depot-data-breach-may-top-50-million/

Teaching Suggestions

You may want to use the information in this blog post and the original article to

  • Stress the importance of students monitoring credit and debit card activity on a regular basis.
  • Obtain a credit or debit card with the new chip and pin technology.
  • Encourage students to determine their liability if their credit or debit card information is stolen.

Discussion Questions

  1. Assume you are trying to decide between two different credit cards. One card does not have chip and pin technology and does not charge an annual fee.  The other card does have chip and pin technology, but charges an $85 annual fee?  Which card would you choose?  Explain your answer.
  2. Besides choosing a credit or debit card with chip and pin technology, what other steps can you take to make sure you are not a victim of identity theft?
Sep 6 2014

Six Bank Fees to Avoid

Each year, it seems that banks are reporting ever higher profits.  How do they make so much money?  By charging customers service fees!

Here is a list of six fees that you should avoid:

  1. ATM Fees-It’s important to know where ATM’s are located that are in your network. This will help you avoid a charge to use another bank’s ATM.
  2. Account Fees-Check the fine print. Is there a fee if your balance falls below a certain limit? The limit fees are monthly and can really add up.
  3. Overdraft Fees-Know how much money that you have to spend. Budget wisely and make sure that you have a cushion in your checking account, in case of unexpected expenses.
  4. Fancy Checks-How cute! How much do those Frozen Personalized checks cost? The reality is that the checks and the shipping costs can be very expensive. There are numerous options to acquire cheaper checks (Sam’s club, BJ’s, Costco, Walmart).  One more thing to consider:  checks are used much less frequently today, so, that box of Frozen checks might last a really long time, make sure you like the design.
  5. Credit Reports-You can get a copy of your credit report for free from AnnualCreditReport.com, so, don’t pay for one.
  6. Loan Interest– As an incentive, banks offer a discount by utilizing more than one of their services. You might get a lower rate, if you agree to direct deposit, in exchange for a reduced interest rate on your loan.

Bottom Line: Do your homework when it comes to bank fees.  There are many ways to avoid spending money on unnecessary fees.

For more information:  http://www.wisebread.com/are-you-paying-these-6-unfair-banking-fees

Teaching points:

  • Discuss these six fees with your students. Survey how many have paid at least one of these fees.
  • Have students research at least two local banks and report back on the account fees that each bank charges.

Discussion items:

  1. Do you believe that any one demographic pays more fees than another? Why?
  2. What are some other ways that people can avoid these fees?