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I’m going to take a break from my posting today and enjoy reading some great articles that have been submitted to me as I host the Money Hacks Carnival: Bailout Edition.   So feel free to checkout the latest news and articles that these authors have posted to help me bailout my readers

Editor’s Top Picks

FMF presents An Example of What I’ve Been Talking About posted at Free Money Finance.

nickel presents Save Money by Renting Out a Room posted at fivecentnickel.com.

Mr. ToughMoneyLove presents Tracking Our Economic Recovery posted at Tough Money Love.

PFR presents Provident Bank Checking Account $123 Bonus posted at Personal Finance Reviews.

Patrick @ Money Saving Deals presents CoolSavings.com - Free Coupons and Money Saving Deals posted at Money Saving Deals.

The Smarter Wallet presents Charting Stock Movements With Fibonacci Trading Techniques posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Other Blogs - Should they be bailed out? You decide!

Investing
PT presents Tips on Dealing with Credit Rollbacks posted at Prime Time Money.

Brian presents Best CD Rates posted at Monitor Bank Rates.

Ray presents Is buy and hold investment strategy dead? posted at Financial Highway.

Finance Tips 101 presents Why Take The Risk Of Day Trading posted at Finance Tips 101.

Manshu presents Gold Funds - Expense Ratios and Minimum Investments posted at OneMint.

Michael Cohen presents Even If We Are The Next Japan, Stocks Aren?t Necessarily A Short posted at Stock Investment 123.

Buying Stuff
Junior presents What To Do If You Can?t Make Your Car Payments posted at Car Commentary.

mfd presents Optimize your Bank Interest through Automation posted at My Findependence Day.

Adam presents Basics of Prepaid College Tuition 529 Savings Plans posted at Your Money Relationship.

Loans and Credit
kathryn presents Get Your Taxes Done for Free! posted at Out of Debt - Christian Finances and Debt Help.

DebtLite presents What Are the Root Causes of Debt? posted at Debt Advice.

Abigail Perry presents How to deal with debt collectors posted at i pick up pennies.

The Investor presents The recession is not a lifestyle choice posted at Monevator.

Madison presents $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit posted at My Dollar Plan.

Patrick @ Military Money presents Looking for a Job? Consider Joining the Military posted at Military Finance Network.

Carson Brackney presents How to Value a Charitable Donation posted at Personal Finance Analyst.

Sun presents Discover Escape Card 25,000 Bonus Miles Promotion posted at The Sun’s Financial Diary.

BankMan presents Limit Six Savings Account Withdrawals Per Month posted at High Yield Savings Accounts.

The Financial Blogger presents IACI actually makes a good move posted at Intelligent Speculator.

Curt presents 7 Reasons Why Banks Should Increase Interest Rates posted at PennyJobs.com.

Todd Johnson presents Search Engine Optimization posted at Richard Lee.

Dividend Tree presents Dividend Investing In All Economic Cycles | Dividend Tree posted at Dividend Tree.

Economy
Barry presents Tug Of War Between Retailers And Frugal Consumers posted at Associate Money.

Tom Tessin presents Secured Credit Cards that Report to Major Bureaus posted at FSC Blog.

Kevin presents How to Pay for the Octuplets posted at The Red Stapler Chronicles.

Pinyo presents Introduction to Peer-to-Peer Lending posted at Moolanomy.

Kathryn presents Freelancer’s Guide to Important Tax Deductions posted at KathrynVercillo on Bukisa.

D4L presents The Best Dividend Stocks In The World posted at Dividends Value.

Frugality & Saving Money
Momma presents Top Recommended Paid Survey Sites: Making Money with Online Surveys posted at Engineer a debt free life.

Beef Up Your Piggy presents Don’t Swear Off Plastic Completely posted at Beef Up Your Piggy.

Ramis presents Some tax savings strategies posted at Financial Highway.

MoneyNing presents Counter Intuitive Way of Lowering Your Spending posted at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning.

Chris presents House-hunting expenses and how to minimize them (part 2) posted at Home I Own.

Investing School presents Beta and Alpha Returns for Us Sane Investors posted at Investing School.

Alex presents Printable Mothers Day Cards posted at Home Life Weekly.

ChristianPF presents How long does it take to get your tax refund? posted at Christian Personal Finance.

J. Money presents Shredding 700+ receipts: Not fun, but good to do. posted at Budgets are Sexy..

Mara Rogers presents Household Tips To Save You Time And Money posted at Secrets for Money.

LAL presents What did you get from your parents Part I posted at LivingAlmostLarge.

Jeff@Stretchydollar presents Dealing With Financial Frustrations, Part I posted at stretchyDollar» StretchyDollar.com.

Income
Frank Curmudgeon presents House Prices: The Long View posted at Bad Money Advice.

FIRE Finance presents TaxCut - Upto 36% OFF Discount Coupons posted at FIRE Finance.

Jake Stone presents Fake Money Blog » Hopeless sales gamble posted at Fake Money Blog.

FFB presents Economic Credit Crisis Visualized posted at Free From Broke.

Todd presents How To Pay For College posted at HarvestingDollars.

Savings Toolbox presents Finding Yourself unable to Make Your Mortgage Payments? posted at Savings Toolbox.

Destroy Debt presents More Grocery Shopping Saving Tips posted at Destroy Debt.

Scott Crawford presents Understanding Your Credit Report posted at DebtGoal.

Heather Levin presents Want To Live In A Shipping Crate? posted at The Greenest Dollar.

Tushar Mathur presents Zecco: Free stock Trades ? posted at Everything Finance.

Other
Dan presents Deal of a Lifetime in Muni Bond Investments? posted at Darwin’s Finance.

Mr Credit Card presents ThankYou Network Citi Rewards Review posted at Ask Mr Credit Card’s Blog.

Jeff Rose presents 8 Unusual Things to Hold in Your IRA posted at Jeff Rose.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Zecco vs TradeKing: Which Online Stock Brokerage Account To Choose? posted at The Digerati Life.

Relax presents The happy way to spend money posted at The Wise Curve.

Ryan Suenaga presents Ask the Readers: What are your Best Money Hacks? posted at Uncommon Cents.

Thursday presents What Does the Economic Stimulus Plan Mean For You? posted at Wealth Junkies.

Dawn C presents 7 Little Hacks to Saving a Bucket Full posted at Frugal For Life.

jim presents Highest Short-Term CD (Certificate of Deposit) Rates posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

The Happy Rock presents Deep Freeze - Freezing Sale Items To Help Stretch Your Grocery Dollars | The Happy Rock posted at The Happy Rock.

TStrump presents 5 Tips to Make Travelling by Air Easier | The Strump posted at The Strump - Financial Blog.

Miss M presents Deliverance from Debt: A.D. – After Debt posted at M is for Money.

Filed under: banking, business, credit card, debt, equity, interest, money by admin - 664 Comments →

In the beginning, every financial facility had a certain group of functions they were allowed to perform. These regulations were strictly enforced not allowing them to overstep their boundaries unless they wanted to deal with stringent consequences. These laws were put into effect after the stock market crash and the Great Depression to protect banks from failures and over extension of loans. Banks were allowed to only provide the normal checking accounts, personal loans, commercial banking for businesses and other short-term loans. They were not allowed to provide any other financial services such as insurance or investments products. Alongside this regulation came the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which provided protection for those depositing their money into the Banks.

After a stabilizing of the economy, there came deregulation. This lifted the previous restraint on banks and allowed them to venture into providing other financial services other than the simple checking account etc. They were not only allowed to provide investment products and insurance but they could also do business in home mortgage as well as home equity loans. This allowed Banks to become a one-stop shop for their customer’s financial needs.

Types of Banking Facilities

Not only did deregulation open up doors for Banks but it also opened up doors for other Banking Facilities to compete for the attention of financial customers. Banking Facilities such as Savings and Loans, Savings Banks and Credit Unions began to emerge. The FDIC protects some of these Banking Facilities however some are not protected.
An important point to remember is that, in advertising, anyone not protected by the FDIC are required to say so while those that are protected by the FDIC will also say so. Therefore, even though you may find a better deal at a Banking Facility that is not FDIC insured it would probably be wise to go with a facility protected by the FDIC ensuring that your money is safe.

Savings and Loans

These are often called S&L’s or Thrifts. They are known for providing a certain level of financial service for a long period of time. They are mainly in the business of collecting deposits for savings accounts or to go towards loans. Their history was in dealing mainly with the housing market. Many of them were organized as “associations”. This meant the customers who held accounts with them were owners of the Thrift or S&L. This posed a problem, as due to this type of organization the Thrift was unable to sell stock so that they could make money to grow.
During the emergence of deregulation, a lot of the Thrifts changed their organization towards corporations and also found themselves diving into commercial real estate lending. Due to Thrifts being more geared towards savings and unable to compete with the larger Banks the majority of them are located in smaller towns rather than big cities.
Also included under the umbrella of Savings and Loans are Credit Unions and Savings Banks.

Credit Unions

Credit Unions are similar to the earlier days of Thrifts. They started out as a savings club with members only being allowed to join if they met the requirements. A lot of these requirements were living in the same place, working at the same place or something else that was common amongst all of its members. Nowadays the qualifications for becoming a member have become a little more lenient and you could very well find a Credit Union that only requires you live in a certain city or county to become a member.

Credit Unions started out making personal loans to its members and then eventually graduated to auto loans. Due to their non-profit organization they were able to provide loans with lower interest rates and savings with higher rates. Another reason they are able to offer better rates is because they are not required to pay federal taxes. This gives them a big advantage over Banks and S&L’s. One other difference between Banks and Credit Unions is that The National Credit Union Administration, not the FDIC, protects the Credit Unions customers’ money up to $100,000 and governs them.

A few disadvantages of Credit Unions are that they usually don’t have multiple locations and they may be able to offer good rates on some financial products but not all of them. That’s why it is always important to shop around various Banking Facilities before you commit to a product.
Savings Banks

This type of Banking Facility has decreased in number rapidly due to its functions overlapping with those of Banks and S&L’s. Once very popular, especially on the East Coast, Savings Banks are now obsolete due to deregulation. Their initial functions saw them growing rapidly because they could function like a Commercial Bank, in that they were able to offer business loans as well as like a Thrift in that they could receive payments on these loans and savings accounts. However, once the deregulation occurred allowing Banks to do the same the services, Savings Banks were no longer needed as the customer could get all of their financial needs met at a Bank.

Which Is Better?

When it comes to choosing which type of Banking Facility is best for you, it is really about choosing the one that provides the mixture of products that best suits your needs. You may want to think about the products you need now and how this may change in the future. Another factor to consider would be location. If you feel you are settled in your area then you can focus more on personalized customer service rather than presence. However, if you feel you will be moving, or you tend to travel a lot the local Credit Union may not be as convenient as a Bank with a national presence.

No matter which Banking Facility you choose just remember that you are not locked in to purchasing products from that institution alone. You are always free to shop around for deals that will work to your benefit.

Filed under: banking, business, home ownership, money by admin - 58 Comments →