Tips from a college student

I just realized that to transfer money out of Wachovia online into a different bank there is a $3 fee. That is absurd. There is no reason for them to charge a fee for that, they are just trying to screw their customers out of money. I have news for them, I'm doing them a favor by letting them store my money, I don't have to leave it with them. And this fee isn't helping my decision to keep it there. I have several bank accounts with other banks, and there are no fees for anything on them, including transfers. I am going to contact Wachovia and issue a complaint.

If you have a Wachovia checking account, please contact them and complain about this fee. Let's try to get it taken away, because there is no reason for them to impose it on us. Until they take it away, I will continue to take money out through paypal, which is a free way to do it.

You can contact Wachovia by logging in online and clicking on customer service, then clicking to contact them and send a secure message. Hopefully if they recieve enough feedback, they will remove this fee. Please comment on your feelings about this fee and any ideas you have for getting it removed.

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I have had some issues with Wachovia in the past, but this post is going to be positive. Wachovia now has their online banking set up where you can transfer money between other banks and Wachovia. This was one of my biggest complaints before, and I'm not sure when they added this but it upgraded Wachovia in my book from unusable to usable. With that in mind, here is a list of the top 5 reasons Wachovia is a good bank to use for checking.

1. Wachovia is big. There are branches across the country from the West Coast to the East Coast. This is important because you have access to your money for free whereever you go.

2. Good online services. Free bill pay is one feature that can be really handy. Also as I mentioned earlier, you can transfer money easily between Wachovia and your other banks online. The only problem with this is there is a $3 outbound fee when you transfer money out. I think that is ridiculous. The only other thing I don't like about the online services is they charge you to download your info into Quicken.

3. Checking is free. No fees, no minimums, nothing. This is my minimum requirement for opening any type of banking account. Why should they charge me for me to let them have my money? That would be dumb.

4. Services. Wachovia is a big bank, so they offer many services. Everything from business options, loans, financial planning, insurance, investing, you name it they can help. The only thing I use is checking, so the other stuff I cannot endorse because I haven't tried it.

5. View transactions online and in monthly statements. I like to be able to go online and find out what I've spent money on and keep up with my finances, because I hate waiting until the end of the month to see everything. Wachovia makes this possible.

Wachovia is a pretty good bank with many options and it is pretty useful, although I still prefer my credit union checking account. I'm not sure why, maybe I'm just really loyal. I have to have this Wachovia though because when I leave the state I don't have access to my credit union. I would recommend Wachovia because it's good enough for free checking, is easy to transfer money between it and your high-yield savings account, and it is big so you have access to your money no matter where you go.
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For some time now the hot news in the technology market has been HD DVD movies. Everyone is speculating which format will win, Blu ray or HD DVD. It is like the vhs vs beta max debate of the 80's. The Blu ray format is made by Sony and is incorporated into the new PS3, so they have an advantage there. HD DVD is made by Toshiba, and is much cheaper than Blu ray. I believe that this will ultimately make the HD DVD the standard for high definition movies.

Many stores are dropping the prices on the Toshiba HD DVD for the holidays, and while some are just having black friday sales on them many stores such as walmart are dropping the price permanently. The trend is to drop the price right under $200, which is a very good price for technology this new. Because of the big difference in price between the two formats, I believe that after the holidays the HD DVD will slowly pull away from Blu ray in sales. Once a lot of the players have sold on black friday and other holiday promotions, people will begin to buy the movies in that format, which will be the deciding factor ultimatly. The more movies that are bought in one format or the other, the better the chance that that format will win the battle.

So watch for these sales near you, as they will probably be selling out quickly, and I would stay away from wasting money on a Blu ray player unless you are buying the PS3, in which case the price isn't that bad for what you get. Also, for those interested in stocks, watch for Toshiba. I'm not a big stock person, but I think there is a good chance that the Toshiba stock will take off during and right after the holdiay shopping season. Also, if you are watching for a good deal on these keep your eye on Ebay, Amazon, Overstock, and other discount websites. You can sometimes get some great deals on these websites. Also, watch for coupons and promotional coupons from office depot, best buy, and other major retailers. Especially this time of year you can get some really good deals if you are willing to shop around a little bit.




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I'm sure you've noticed I have made some major changes to the site. Please comment if there is anything not working well or that you think doesn't look good. I appreciate feedback and will try to respond to all of it.

Everyone needs a little extra money. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, you still want more. Hey, I’m just being honest, I mean its true isn’t it? Don’t you want some more money?

Anyway, I’ve compiled a list of things to do to get a little extra money on the side. All of these are useful in college, most are useful to anyone. So, here’s the list.

#1. Sell stuff on eBay.

-Everyone has junk somewhere that they could get rid of. In your home, you have your attic and your garage, 2 places that normally have all kinds of stuff you don’t need. If your in college, you should realize every time you move into or out of a dorm room that you have too much stuff and need to sell it.

#2. Check college career center for work.

-Most colleges have a career center place on their website where local businesses can list work they need done. This is a good place to get some work, whether it is a weekend job or a full-time job.

#3. Classified ads.

-Many times people list stuff in classified ads in local newspapers/Craigslist/Facebook that they need done, such as mowing yards or helping move them into a new house, or help paint their house. . Many times you can make some decent money just by responding to these ads.

#4. Sell your books.

-Amazon and half.com are great. You can sell pretty much any book on there, whether it is a textbook or just a random book someone gave you. You can create space and make money by selling books you don’t need. And for future reference, try checking out books from the library instead of buying them.

#5. Free money.

-Get free money by taking advantage of promotions, such as the ING Direct $25 promotion going on right now. Also, you can get a lot of free money by taking advantage of credit card offers, but you have to be careful with those or you can get yourself in trouble.

#6. Get freebies and sell them.

-There are many ways to get freebies, which I will address in a different post. You can either save money by getting useful stuff such as deodorant, toothpaste, and other random stuff, or you can get freebies like laptops and microwaves and sell them. This is pure profit.

#7. Do something you like and make money for it.

-If you have a hobby making stuff, sell stuff you make. Blog about whatever you love. Figure out what you spend most of your time doing or thinking about, and then create a blog about it. Put Google ad words on there and get some passive income rolling in. Sign up for affiliate links. I've heard some great success stories about people doing this.

Evidently the response I received in this post was wrong, because I just checked my Wachovia Checking account and the money from the promotion was deposited into my account on 10/4/07.

It shows up as 2 separate deposits, one for opening the account with $100 and the other for making a direct deposit of $100.

I haven't been that happy with Wachovia, and probably won't keep the account open, but I am going to read first and make sure that I am allowed to close the account without any fees or losing the bonus. For more on why I'm not happy with Wachovia, click here.

I guess that even though I would never use Wachovia as my primary checking account because of simply not being able to transfer money easily online, it did accomplish it's purpose of getting me $50 for free. So I should be satisfied with the results, as I now have my money.

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I believe that big banks rip people off. I get much better features from small banks than I do big ones, but the big ones generate a ton more money for themselves. I do not own a business or take out huge loans, so I cannot speak from experience on that, but coming from investing in savings accounts, cds, money markets, checking, IRA's, etc., big banks are not the best deal.

Many times smaller banks have good deals because they are trying to take customers away from big banks like Wachovia, Suntrust, BOA, etc. I'm sure that these big banks are more useful for businesses or big loans or something, but I can say from experience they are no good for personal accounts.

These banks rip you off many ways.

1. They give you a tiny interest rate, then charge a really high one on loans. I know they have to make some money, but they are making wayyyy too much.

2. Fees. It seems like these big banks have fees for everything. Especially if you have a checking account. They tell you it is free, but you have to read the fine print. Sometimes it will say something like you have to have 10,000 dollars in your savings, your house and your car financed through them, and been customer for 25 years. On the other hand, you can go to a smaller bank or credit union and just get a free no questions asked checking account. Many will even pay interest, something a big bank would never do.

3. Lack of features. I signed up for Wachovia because of the $50 promotion, but was very disappointed when I discovered that I could not easily transfer money between my online accounts at ING and Wachovia. Is it too much to ask for a bank as big as Wachovia to institute some kind of ACH transfer system?

After having Wachovia for about 3 months, I am very disappointed and will close my account as soon as I get my money for the promotion.

I recommend getting an online account such as ING or FNBO Direct. If you like to have a local brick and mortar bank you can visit, get a credit union. I am not even sure if it's worth the hassle to get a promotion at the big banks, I guess that depends on how hard up you are.

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