European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 28, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday april 282007 stars and stripes Page 15 your Money an atm balance statement int trustworthy by Vicki Lee Parker Mcclatchy newspapers Richard Seay has a warning he would like to share checking your account bal Ance at an atm before a withdrawal is no guarantee you wont be hit with an insufficient fund fee Seay found that out the hard Way on one recent weekend he racked up in insufficient fund fees for six trans actions All after a trip to the atm assured him he had Money in his account the gamer no Post office worker paid a visit to his Branch office to find out what happened that s when Seay Learned a lesson about How Banks do business Seay was told about Wachovia Hig Tolow Check posting process when several transactions come in at the same time the highest amount gets paid first Christine Shaw a spokeswoman for Wachovia said this is an Industry wide practice the real crucial things get paid first such As car payment or mortgage she said and that s what happened to Seay he had about in his account on Friday so that Day he paid a Bill with his debit card and made a withdrawal from the atm on saturday he made another atm withdrawal for and paid on Gro Ceries with his debit card at food lion on sunday he made a third atm withdrawal for total he spent but on monday a Check his car payment came into the Bank a Day before an automatic Deposit was due and a Day before he thought it would the car payment was processed before his week end withdrawals and that leads to the other thing Seay Learned from his local banker All transactions from arms online payments checks and debit payments Are processed on week Days Only Shaw said because this was Seays first overdraft the Bank reimbursed him half of the fees but the fees still caused him to fall behind on his car insurance Shaw said that customers Sli Ould find out How their Bank processes transactions one Way to protect against overdraft fees is to set up an overdraft account she said that s when you link your checking account to a savings account Money mar Ket account or Bank credit card if your account dips below Zero the funds will be taken from the linked account but depend ing on the Type of account you have there can be a fee for this service too the Hig Tolow processing became pop ular in the mid199qs when Banks started offering overdraft Protection programs the service was designed to help cover payments that would otherwise Bounce but instead of helping it seems to have dug deeper into customers pockets Banks Are saying that people dont want important payments to Bounce said Laura Bruce a senior reporter at Bank Atesom but then Treyve got five or six smaller checks they wrote at the Gro Cery store piling up a Bunch of insufficient fees by the same Token Banks Are making a lot of Money in fees in 2006 Banks received billion in Revenue from service charges on deposits accounts which includes insufficient funds and overdraft charges said Ross Waldrop a senior banking analyst with the Federal Deposit insurance corp in Washington that amount is More than double than that of 10 years ago Uliey need to learn How to manage their account then they dont have to worry about fees and float time 97 Laura Bruce Bank Atesom Bruce said that customers should Call their Bank to get a Complete list of its fees you would be stunned by How Many there Are she said also Bruce said that too Many people still think they have four to five Days for a Check to Clear and they get caught Short of Money they need to learn How to manage their account then they dont have to worry about fees and float time she said Seay said that he knew there was a possibility the car payment Check would Clear a Day Early so he expected to pay one psf fee but not six from now on he plans to pay his Bills with a Money order As he did before he opened the checking account six months ago i didst have any insufficient fees doing that he said i just paid 46 cents for the Money order and that was that thursdays Market summary Exchange rates 52 High Low name last net chg Ltd chg chg 52wk chg 1310745 1068332 Dow Jones industrials 1310550 525490 413472 Dow Jones transportation 517617 6743 129 53127 38930 Dow Jones utilities 52733 375 71 975244 770811 nose composite 971549 3108 32 224247 180065 amex Index 219725 1986 90 255139 201278 Nash a composite 255446 149659 121929 500 149425 117 08 88952 71053 89006 83489 66858 Russell 2000 83380 1512464 1224990 do Wilshire 5000 1510803 238 02 most or name vol 00 last chg forum Psi corp Geniec Pfizer pm cup migrant Hal Libens Motorola and Exxon by 721439 820 548841 894 455008 3584 410925 2672 368279 1557 282685 1197 264820 3163 258064 1790 01 253839 1450 252197 8055 36 17 15 name to 00 last chg Spur ishr2knya spongy Semi her co Vadym Prus Haqq n oils vat Djina diam spa Sci egme nya 837906 439899 132859 123056 121709 83957 79784 76139 54645 14965 8317 6414 3752 100 4743 15811 13120 3735 610 02 16 19 70 06 52 most Active or More name last chg level3 Sun Micro push Sqq Sirius Amazon Apple inc Microsoft Cisco Intel Yahoo 942551 927654 892276 825110 605025 563667 560446 498671 492145 318764 573 45 525 02 4655 296 6278 9884 2910 2655 23 2209 17 2849 key defense stocks name div be last Ltd  Armor holdings Boeing computer sciences general dynamics general electric Halliburton Harris corp Allied signal l3 communications Lockheed Martin Northrop Raythelon Rockwell into Seq a corp Texas instruments text Ron inc United technologies 20 20 140 30 29 116 17 112 18 to 14 44 22 100 21 100 21 140 16 148 16 102 19 i16 12 21 32 13 155 22 106 18 9329 6951 9426 5583 7910 3584 3163 5247 5369 8989 9350 7369 5342 5912 12055 3516 10267 6765 43 14 29 37 30 106 200 36 158 81 32 220 10 44 39 key Mutual funds name Nav Ltd chg ret Fidelity invest Fidelity invest Fidelity spartan Putnam funds a Erlna Amer Century inv Fidelity invest Fidelity invest Fidelity invest aim investments a const fms a aim investments a Fidelity advisor Fidelity advisor t Putnam funds a Globe qty Fidelity advisor t Putnam funds a gig a military rates euro costs april Dollar buys april British Pound april japanese yen april South korean won april commercial rates Bahrain British Canada China Denmark Egypt Hong Kong Hungary Israel Japan Kuwait Dinar Norway Philippines Poland saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey new military Exchange rates Are those available to customers at military Bank ing facilities in the country of issuance for Japan South Korea Germany the Netherlands and the United kingdom for no local currency Exchange rates in purchasing British pounds in Germa Check with your local military Bank ing facility commercial rates Are inter Bank rates provided for reference when buying currency All figures Are foreign currencies to one Dollar except for the British Pound which is represented in dollars Pound and the euro which is dollars Teuro new York merc dose Gold Silver 513320 inheres rates prime rate825 discount Federal funds Market Fate 523 3month bill497 30year bond484 sources the associated press Bank of America tits and sensibility prevent mortgage woes by Marshall Loeb Market watch new York having Mort age troubles youre not alone according to data compiled by Equi fax mortgage delinquency rates hit an Al time High in the first Quarter of 2007 287 per cent of All mortgages were in de even the High est Levels since the 2001 recession if you feel youre at risk dont despair there Are some Steps you can take to Niini Nize foreclosures and make sure your credit int badly dinged Michael Eisenberg a certified Public accountant and personal finance specialist offers this advice make your payments on time if youre going to be late Call your Lender to let them mow they May be willing to work with you if you Are honest from the Start focus on your monthly Bud get to really straighten out your mortgage situation you need to determine your monthly expenses and income examine where you can Cut Back so that you can focus on your mortgage payments there Are a number of calculators available online that can help you get started talk to the right person when you speak with your Lender make sure you Are working with the right person some one who actually has the authority to work out a viable solution for you be sure to take detailed notes of every conversation and meeting you have with your Lender ask about alternatives to foreclosure there May be other ways out find out if you can get forbearance or a request to suspend or temporarily reduce your payments youll need to have documented proof such As recent pay stubs Bank state ments you Are trying your Best to pay the Bills find out How your credit score will be affected if foreclosure really is the Only option ask your Lender How your credit score will be affected so you know what youre getting into