$5 Million Reasons to Bank in New York

Well after my issues with E*Trade I think I have found the perfect bank for me. Sure I will need to move to New York, Commerce Bank really has the best terms around.

Benjamin Lovell had $800 in his account and was going to make a deposit when the teller told him he had $5 Million in his account already! That is about 624900% Interest, or 624895.9% better than E*Trade!

Well Old Ben couldn't believe his luck and over the next little period he withdrew $2 Million. He bought Jewelry for his girlfriend and used some to invest...hopefully not in Commerce Bank Stock! Ben realized this wasn't his money, and unfortunately for him, so did the bank eventually. He is currently sitting in the pokey awaiting trial on $3 Million Bail...which is what he would of had left in the account! Not intentional, probably, but funny none the less.

These sort of errors happen all of the time, probably more often then the banks would prefer that we know and not usually this size. They take the money back out and if it is gone, like Ben, ask for it back, demand it back, then call the police. Yep, whether it was the banks fault for giving him access to the funds or not, it is still stealing and a potential felony if more than $1,000.

This is one of those times were even the best of us would be tempted, especially if we were under other pressures, as he apparently was. However, stealing is stealing whether it is candy from a baby, money from crooks like in "No Country for Old Men" or banks that make stupid mistakes.

It is sort of like this famous story attributed to be Winston Churchill to Lady Astor:

A certain gentleman inquired of a lady whether she would be willing to sleep with him for 50,000 pounds. After some hesitation, the lady replied that she supposed she would, in consideration of the magnitude of the offer. Then he asked whether she would sleep with him for twopence.

"Certainly not," she responded with indignation. "Just what kind of lady do you think I am?"

"Madam, I believe we have already established that," he remarked calmly. "Now we are just haggling over the price."

That being said, I am still tempted to switch banks :) How about you? What would you do? James Bond-like escape to Central America or Jimmy Stewart call to the Bank to report the error even though the pressure would be pretty tough?

Don't forget, there is still time to win our RSS Email sign-up contest! Just sign-up HERE or on the top left portion of the main page!

(card by Parker Bros.)

E*Trade is Up...sort of..and MSN and other updates!

My E*Trade account is now working...sort of.

I had forgotten that six years ago I had an E*Trade account for some stock options that I cashed out when I moved to a new job. This was the only time I used it. But when I signed up for my new Complete savings account, even though it gave me a new log-in et all, it linked the account to my old account and reset the password and log-in! No wonder I couldn't get in to see it!

The phone rep Julie, although I believe she was in India and not her name, was very nice and walked me through the labyrinth to get it fixed. I do have my Wells Fargo Checking tied back to it and all is well...well sort of. The email address locked to the account is my old email account at an ex-job! When I go to change it, it emails the old no-valid email for me to confirm the change...which I can't since it goes to a dead account! This has been draining to say the least. I will call and fix this last piece, but talk about a lot of work for a little bit extra!

The first update is that Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Money has been Featured again (second time!) in an article on MSN MoneyBlog's Smartspending! This was a great article by Karen that features a quote from our piece on the people walking away from their homes.

Second update is that the RSS Contest is going well. Lots of entrants, but still not so much to blow Your chance to win. I am really looking forward to awarding the first piece!

Last update involves a meme post I made and took down. While I feel that post had the best of intentions, to promote other blogs, it felt like a gray area in the Big G'g TOS. So I pulled the post on my own. I am not out to game any system and even the appearance felt wrong.

It harkens back to a saying I learned from a great teacher one time: "The More you Know, the more you Know you Don't Know!"

My New E*Trade Account Sucks

This weekend I opened a Complete Savings Account at E*Trade. It was at 4.4% interest with no minimum and pretty light restrictions. I want this account to tuck away the money I am saving for my 2008 Property Taxes and Christmas.

The account itself is probably fine (I hope,) it is just the E*Trade Instructions and communication has been horrid! I get a note saying the account is set up, but then I can't see it on the Log-in page. I try to set up My Wells Fargo Checking to be able to transfer in; it grabs my information and then clears out the UI...Over and Over. You can't tell it is set up until you get an error message telling you that you already set it up!

Then you have to verify the account...but it doesn't tell you how, or walk you through it! I finally got that set up and the money is out of my checking ($100 in seed money in case it didn't work). So now I can see my Wells Fargo Account in my E*Trade account...but not my E*Trade account!

Guess what?...no way to email them about it, you gotta call...an EBank? I am busy here folks! In the mean time the 4.4% account that I signed up for is now 4.1%! I knew the rate was subject to change, but wow!

This was also an experiment of sort for me as I have never really had a bunch of accounts to take advantage of higher rate. I just left everything extra in my Wells Fargo Savings drawing a whopping 1% interest. It was tied to my checking account as overdraft protection, which was good as we were not exactly...on it before. It saves us a bunch of late fees.

Here is the new plan:

• Checking - $300 - After all bills keep amount due to potential medical bills and pharmacy needs. It is interest bearing, but the amount is like 0.25%!
• Savings - $2000+ - This is our Emergency Fund, Baby Step #1. We have $74 auto-transferred each 15th of the month. This coupled with a minimum in savings ($1000) and using bill pay gives me the best Wells Fargo Rate: 1%
• E*Trade - (Eventually)$5000+/- - This were I want to save for our longer bills like Property Taxes and Christmas. Now at 4.1%. When we get to Baby Step #3 (3-6 months expenses) we may put that here as well.

Seems like a good plan to me! But feeling a bit stupid that I went with E*Trade. Well I understand why they didn't have a great reputation on bankrate.com (which is a great site BTW).

How about any of you? Been through he same thing? Worse with an online savings account?

I am really glad I am playing Golf this weekend!

Personal Finance QuickTake: Ex E*Trade CEO Cashes In...

Fortune Magazine Online ran a great story last night about the former head of E*Trade's Golden Parachute. In recognition of his ability to drive E*Trade down 84% by entering into super-risky sub-prime loans Mitchel Caplan received a severance package worth $10.9 Million in cash plus lifetime medical.

Let me go on the record ( I guess I am anyway since this is on the web) that I believe a CEO should share in the riches if a company does well. I expect to get paid in my job I do not begrudge someone their money for doing the same. I also understand that, like with professional athletics, the a company will pay someone very well if they can help the team, because it is a good investment. If I was paid $10 Million, but I increased shareholder value $1 billion, my pumpkin head is gonna rest easy...

That being said, their is such a thing as admit you were wrong, even with the best intentions, and parting ways. I believe in severance as long as their was no wrong doing. But if you lose 84% of the value of a company, have the decency to leave a couple bucks in the till on your way out...