It seems like, regularly, we hear stories about how some database was hacked and personal information was stolen. In such a world, it becomes increasingly important to protect your online accounts.

Whether you are trying to protect an individual account from being compromised, or whether you are trying to limit the damage due to a breach at some other company, there are some things you can do to protect your online accounts as much as you are able.

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The Treasury Department announced that, effective January 4th, 2012, you will be allowed to purchase $10,000 each of Series I and Series EE bonds per year per person. Previously, it was believed that we’d only be allowed to purchase $5,000 of each series because the annual limit was $5,000 for electronic bonds and $5,000 for paper bonds, with paper bonds, for the most part, being phased out at the end of 2011. You will still be allowed to purchase up to $5,000 in paper Series I bonds with your tax refund, using for Form 8888.

As of this writing, the Series I bond are yielding 3.06% APY through April 2012 (fixed rate component of 0.0% and inflation component of 1.53%) while a Series EE bond will yield 0.60% (but remember, they are guaranteed to double after twenty years, even if the fixed rate won’t get you there, but that adjustment doesn’t happen until you hit twenty years).

In our current interest rate environment, with online savings accounts yielding so little, I’m a fan of Series I bonds.

(Photo: karen_d)

Decades ago, one of the most popular things you could buy a kid for their birthday, before they knew any better, were savings bonds. As someone who turned thirty just a few years, folks my age and younger probably have a few savings bonds floating out there just waiting to be redeemed. Back then, savings bonds were seen as a good gift because it started children on the road to saving, even if they didn’t know about it. Plus, savings bonds look cool (I think so anyway!).

But as is anything on paper, they’re easy to lose. This is especially true if you’ve moved several times or, in the case of gifts to children, they’re sitting in a folder at your parent’s house. Fortunately, they may be easy to find as long as they are Series E bonds and were issued after 1974 (a small subset, I know, but better than nothing!). The Treasury Department built a Treasury Hunt tool that you can use to look for bonds that have fully matured. Sadly, if they haven’t fully matured or aren’t Series E, the system won’t have it. It’s archaic but it’s the only thing we have and the Treasury has billions in unredeemed fully matured Series E bonds it’s looking to return to owners.
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According to the FDIC, ninety-two banks failed in 2011. Not a bad number considering a hundred and fifty seven banks failed in 2010 and one hundred and forty banks failed in 2009 (“only” twenty five failed in 2008). All in all, it’s nice to see the trend reversing. Most of the banks that failed were smaller community banks, unlike the blockbuster failures of Washington Mutual and IndyMac in 2008 (hence my quotations over “only”).

2011 also saw the failure of two internet banks – Lydian Bank, the parent of Virual Bank, and Nexity Bank, a bank I had never heard of. Internet banks have typically been safe from failure, with never a whisper of failure coming from the larger companies like ING Direct and Ally Bank. I still think that online banks are pretty safe from failure (which means you’d be spared from headaches as FDIC insurance covers you quite a bit) and are tough to beat when coupled with higher interest rates.

If you like some trivia, Georgia saw the most failures (23) with Florida coming in second (13). It flipped from 2010 when Florida had 29 and Georgia had 21. We’ll see who pulls ahead for good this year.

Here’s the full list from the FDIC in case you want to play around with it.

The Kardashians trying to make a quick buck by offering a debit card to their adoring fans makes sense. Even Gene Simmons offering an old school rock and roll signature debit card isn’t much of a story but when somebody like Suze Orman does it, that turns heads.

And it has. Some would say that Suze Orman is the queen of the personal finance gurus. She’s one of the few that is truly on the side of the consumer but her new debit card has some people questioning their Suzie love and maybe they should. Has Suzie gone rogue or is this card truly on the side of the consumer?

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Several years ago, I remember talking with a reporter about these new checking accounts that offered seemingly ridiculous interest rates. Consumers were so used to earning absolutely no interest on checking accounts that the prospect of earning just half a percent seemed too good to be true. So when these obscure banks started offering interest rates of 5%, it seemed like a scam. As I dug a little deeper, I discovered how these banks were able to offer these rates.

To review a bit, reward checking accounts are like regular checking accounts except they “reward” you for following the rules they’ve outlined. If you fail to satisfy all the conditions, you don’t earn the juiced up interest rate, you get the regular, often minuscule, rate. That rate, however, is often better than what you’d get at one of the big national banks, who often offer nothing.
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I had a 11-month No Penalty certificate of deposit maturing this month and was pleased to learn that Ally Bank was still offering a 0.25% interest rate loyalty bonus if you renew the CD. When you renew, you can change the maturity of the CD and even increase or reduce how much you are saving. I took the opportunity to make the 11-month no penalty CD into a whole year regular CD, juicing the interest rate up a few fractions of a percent, and called it a day.

If you wanted to take advantage of this bonus as quickly as possible (and if you don’t already have a CD there), I think you’re can just open a CD for 3 months for $1 and then renew it with more money and for a longer period. (and I bet Ally Bank wouldn’t really care!)

The best part was that the whole process took just a few minutes using their online chat. I was logged in before I started the chat and all I had to do was confirm my phone number and address. Not bad for a day’s work!

Capital One is offering a $50 bonus when you open an InterestPlus Online Savings account using the promotion code BANK223DF with at least $10,000 by January 15th, 2012. Capital One’s online savings bank offers competitive rates compared to other online savings accounts, gives you a 10% quarterly bonus on your interest, and has no fees.

Here is some of the legalese:

You will receive a $50 bonus if you open a Capital One Bank InterestPlus Online Savings (IPOS) account online only, enter the offer code at the time of account opening, and have $10,000 or more on deposit on 1/15/2012. This account must be your first account with Capital One Bank. The deposit will be deposited into your account 4-8 weeks after 1/15/2012 and the account must be open at the time the bonus is credited. The bonus will be reflected on your monthly statement and will be included in your year-to-date interest and year end tax reporting. This offer cannot be combined with any other offers.

I opened one of these accounts under a similar Costco/Capital One promotion last year and have been happy with it. If you are a Costco member, especially an Executive member, then the Costco promotion is better. With an Executive membership you get $60 in bonus money ($20 for Gold and Business) plus a higher interest rate (0.91% vs 0.80% as of today). Finally, the minimum you need to deposit to get the rate and bonus is $5,000, not $10,000.

Bank of America has backed out of its plan to charge a $5 per month debit card fee to its customers. It follows several other banks who have announced new fees only to back off them a short time later.

“We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee,” David Darnell, co-chief operating officer at Bank of America, said in a statement. “As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so.”

For many customers like me, it’s too late. I’m leaving. I started the process to change my bank a month ago and I’m not stopping – here’s why:

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As the national banks start instituting various account fees to make up for lost revenue, I’ve heard a lot of customers complaining about how the bailed out banks are “sticking” it to the very people who bailed them out. Those same customers are going to start voting with their wallets by moving their banking needs to local banks and credit unions, who are less likely to institute these types of fees. The more disenchanted customers are even considering going bank-less and joining the ranks of what the financial industry terms “unbanked.”

While there are additional headaches involved with being unbanked, the big one is the inability to easily cash checks. With a bank account, you simply deposit the check and go on your merry way. For the unbanked, you have to find and alternative and some of them can be expensive.

Here are a few alternative options:

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