10 New Money Tools for Young Adults

How to slay new checking account fees
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- It's like Night of the Living Dead: Every time the feds kill off a set of fees, they come back to life -- just in slightly different forms. Chase said that on Feb. 8 it will be enrolling new customers in a new Total Checking account and charging them a $12 monthly maintenance fee. Email Print Comment Similarly, Bank of America announced that by the end of the year it would restructure its checking accounts and implement new monthly fees, ranging from $8.95 to $25. And unl...

Hacked iTunes Accounts for Sale Online
(AFP) - Hacked user accounts for Apple's iTunes Store are for sale on China's largest retail website Taobao, providing illegal access to Credit Card details for music and TV downloads, state media said Thursday. A search by AFP on Taobao showed several shops were selling iTunes accounts for around 30 yuan (US$4.50), promising downloads of songs, games, movies and other products worth $30 through Apple's online entertainment store. The Global Times reported that around 50,000 illegal iTunes accou...

Hacked iTunes accounts for sale online in China
Hacked user accounts for Apple's iTunes Store are for sale on China's largest retail website Taobao, providing illegal access to Credit Card details for music and TV downloads, state media said Thursday. A search by AFP on Taobao showed several shops were selling iTunes accounts for around 30 yuan (4.5 US dollars), promising downloads of songs, games, movies and other products worth 30 US dollars through Apple's online entertainment store. The Global Times reported that around 50,000 illegal iTu...

M&S Money Reveals Over 50s Stick Close to Home in Retirement
Indeed, contrary to popular belief the majority (61%) of this age group has no desire to move overseas and prefers to holiday close to home or in an Englishspeaking country. The top five destinations where M&S Credit Card customers use their card are the USA, France, Spain, Ireland and Italy. Research conducted by the Institute of Public Policy Research in 2006* showed 8% of British Pensioners were living abroad with a prediction that one in five Pensioners would retire overseas in 2050. The...

Camera makers slash prices on new point-and-shoots
NEW YORK (AP) — To fight dwindling camera sales, manufacturers are slashing prices for point-and-shoots — often below $100 — and offering more features for the money. Camera makers unveiled dozens of models this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the largest gadget show in the U.S. Here’s what to look for once they go on sale over the next few months. It used to be nearly impossible to buy a Digital Camera for $100. Now, Casio America Inc., ...

Ahead of the Bell: Consumer credit
Consumers likely boosted the amount of money they borrowed in November. It would be the third consecutive increase, but the gains are being heavily influenced by greater Student Loans rather than increased use of Credit Cards. Economists expect credit rose $300 million in November, according to FactSet. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to release the report at 2 p.m. EST Friday. In October, Consumer Credit rose by $2.4 billion, the largest increase in more than two years. However, even with that...

Illinois moves to tax online purchases, hits bloggers, small business
Internet Retailer today: Lawmakers in Illinois have voted for a 6.25% tax on online retail purchases. The levy, which still needs the Governor's approval, would apply to goods bought through affiliates of online Retailers that take in least $10,000 worth of annual sales in the state. Illinois Affiliate Tax Will Harm Small Businesses and Reduce Tax Revenue Tax Foundation here. Just got an email from Amazon:

Lauren M. Ross: Mistrust and Betrayal: The Far Deeper Costs of the Foreclosure Crisis
The financial costs of the seemingly endless Foreclosure crisis have been widely reported with Credit Suisse estimating that as many as 12 million families will lose their homes before this is all over. The Predatory Lending that led to the spike in foreclosures, and the robo-signings coupled with the illegal forcible removal of many families from their homes, promise to keep these issues in the headlines for years to come. Lost amidst the news reports, legislative hearings, scholarly journal...

Cables reveal how US and UK sought to plunder Zimbabwe's resources
The US diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks contain revealing details of how the United States and Britain sought to further their commercial interests in Zimbabwe. WikiLeaks has released 12 cables, which originate from the American Embassy in Harare in addition to others from the South African capital Pretoria, London and the State Department commenting on the situation in Zimbabwe. They range in date from September 2000 to February 2010. This was a decade in which President Robert Mugab...

Breast op bought with stolen cash
A personal assistant who stole from her employers to pay for a friend's £3,500 breast enhancement operation has been ordered to carry out community work. Emily McMillan, 28, of Sudbury, Suffolk, used corporate Credit Cards belonging to senior executives at global financial firm JP Morgan. The Old Bailey heard she also took money to pay for a holiday and to make a repayment on her brother's Mortgage. She admitted four counts of Fraud and one of theft. The court heard she began stealing...

Next-Gen Cell Phones: Behold The Power Of 4G
New 4G communications technology means the next generation of cell phones will run much faster than what consumers are used to. (Photo: CBS 2) NEW YORK (CBS 2) — Cell phones certainly have come a long way and they’re still evolving. The latest telecommunications technology is 4G — and if you think the phone you’re currently using has a bunch of bells and whistles, wait until you see what 4G can do. You’ve seen the commercials introducing 4G. It’s the next gene...

Born This Year? Things Youll Never Know
If you are born in 2011, or in any recent year for that matter, there are so may things you will never know. Video tape : Starting this year, the news stories we produce here at Money Talks have all been shot, edited, and distributed to TV stations without ever being on any kind of tape. Not only that, the tape-less broadcast camera we use today offers much higher quality than anything that could have been imagined 10 years ago — and cost less than the lens on the camera we were using prev...

10 Unusual Stocks Attracting Huge Interest This Morning (JPM, MS, AIG, MMM, ARMH, BGP, VWM, PSS)
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. This morning's disappointing jobs number has sent futures down, but they've rebounded slightly. In Europe, major indices are lower after opening gains. The FTSE, Germany's DAX and CAC-40 were all down. Debt worries continue to plague the Eurozone and put pressure on bonds and the euro. Major Asian indices were mixed overnight, with India's BSE down big on concerns over future tightening measures. To embed this post, copy the code below and pas...

Congress Needs to Be More Budget-Minded
With the tax year closed, thoughts of those of us who write about The Economy naturally drift towards April 15th, when all chickens come home to roost. And, of course, the terrifying complexity of it all--we're going to have to hire an accountant for the first time this year, because two Journalists with freelance income and deductions are not really qualified to prepare their own taxes, even with the help of TurboTax. Andrew looks over Howard Gleckman's summary of the National Taxpayer Advocate...

Pizzaman turned Congressman hopes to fix Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Bobby Schilling, the pizza shop owner from Illinois who was sworn into Congress Wednesday, thinks his business skills can fix Washington. As a Small Business owner, "you are almost forced to troubleshoot: Find the problem, fix it, then find another problem, and I think that is what Washington D.C., needs," said Schilling from his new digs in Cannon, a historic House Office Building. Email Print Comment A conservative Republican, Schilling was inspired to run f...

Joe Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Simon Johnson, Robert Reich: The liberals were right
The Obama stimulus created jobs, but not enough jobs and not fast enough. The charges from the Republican right are clearly wrong. Even most serious conservative Economists who did not like the stimulus agree it created some jobs, and more jobs than would have been created without it. The economic advocates who were the most clearly right, in retrospect, were Democratic liberal and Populist Economists who favored a larger and stronger stimulus, more job-creating Public Works in a larger overal...

Sorry we were down!
Sorry we were down! Thanks to a Credit Card issue, the blog was down for a couple of hours this morning. My card (with which I pay online bills automatically) expired and a new one was issued, but for some reason that caused absolute chaos. I fail to understand why in this day and age, a Credit Card for the same person with the same numbers but with only a new expiration date cannot automatically update itself. But it can'All the information has to be reentered manually. A pain in the ass. The...

Probe of former Salt Lake County Sheriff candidate reveals multiple purchases
Beau Babka seems to have some very unusual habits when it comes to purchasing fuel. The former Salt Lake County Sheriff Candidate, former US House Candidate, and 20 year police Veteran is under investigation for using a state issued Credit Card to fuel his personal vehicle. He is currently on paid administrative leave from the Cottonwood Heights police department. Records released Thursday indicate on November 29, Babka made two Gasoline purchases on the card - one for 7.3 gallons and one for 12...

Cruising the Web
If you need a smile today, watch this video of a two-year old reciting what she knows about presidential history. David Brooks notes that the Democrats have been an epic failure at persuading the American People that a large, intrusive government can act nimbly to solve the nation's problems. Unintended Consequences rise up again. Megan McArdle points to new regulations for Credit Cards that would make it harder for stay-at-home wives or spouses earning substantially less than their spouses to g...

Southwest revising frequent flier program, will eliminate blackout dates
Southwest Airlines will introduce a new loyalty program today that rewards its high-spending customers and injects more flexibility into redeeming awards. The program, which takes effect March 1, converts Southwest's current credit model into a point-based system, introduces membership tiers, offers international flights by other carriers as awards and removes restrictions on the number of Southwest seats available for redemption. Customers who buy "Business Select" tickets, the Most Expensive...

Warning over bills paid on credit
A growing number of people are paying rent or Mortgages with money borrowed on a Credit Card, a charity says. Shelter said that withdrawing cash on a credit card to pay housing costs was the "worst possible course of action" for householders. Its findings are based on a survey of 2,202 people but lenders have pointed out that they would not accept credit cards for regular mortgage payments. Bank of England figures show unsecured Lending has been flat in the last year. The poll asked Br...

600 credit-card numbers stolen at gas pump
MELBOURNE, Fla., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Six hundred credit-card numbers were stolen at a Florida Gasoline station by an operation that used a credit-card skimmer hidden inside a gas pump, police said. The skimmer, placed at a RaceTrac Petroleum Inc. gas station in Melbourne, Fla., by unknown thieves, recorded customers' credit-card information every time they swiped their cards to pay for gas, police said. The allegedly stolen information led to complaints of fraudulent credit and debit card charges, p...

Southwest Airlines Revamps Frequent Flier Program
DALLAS (AP)- Southwest Airlines is revamping its frequent-flier program with changes designed to nudge customers into buying higher-priced tickets by letting them earn Bonus flights faster. Southwest says passengers will be able to redeem points for any flight without blackout dates. Southwest Credit Card holders will be able to redeem points for international flights on other Airlines. CEO Gary Kelly says the overhaul will bring in "several hundred" millions of dollars in extra annual revenue...

This MSNBC Segment Is The Dumbest Thing You Will Ever See About The Debt Ceiling
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. Sorry, we couldn't think of a more polite way to put this... this MSNBC segment (via FireDogLake) is just about the dumbest thing we could imagine seeing on the Debt ceiling. In an attempt to clarify and simplify what this is is all about, reporter Richard Lui dresses up as "spending" and stands under a ceiling, which he compares to a Credit Card borrower's credit limit, which the US is about to butt up against. First of all, the Debt ceiling ...

Fairy Tales of the Coming State of the Union: We Can't Keep Adding Debt To the National Credit Card
In "All Together Now: There Is No Deficit/Debt Problem,” I warned against the message calling for deficit reduction that the President will probably deliver in his State of the Union Address next month. I view the coming narrative as very likely to be composed of a number of Fairy Tales. Two previous posts have criticized two of the many fairy tales I expect to be in the narrative. This post examines the third fairy tale, namely the idea that we can't keep adding debt to the national credi...