When my lovely wife was growing up, she’d work small summer jobs and put those savings into a certificate of deposit. Even back then, CDs weren’t exactly offering blockbuster yields (they never do relative to other riskier options), but she diligently contributed them into CDs and left them to to mature. The value in doing so wasn’t in the interest she earned but the habit of saving and understanding the importance of saving.

If that’s a lesson you want to teach your kids, the options today are far better than they used to be. Back then, if you were under 18, it was extremely difficult to open an account at the bank. In my case, I simply gave the money to my parents and they saved it on my behalf. It was good enough. Back then, online banking was just starting and I couldn’t log in to check my balance or do anything banking related. These days, with smart phones and always-on internet, giving your kids an account with their name on it can bestow a sense of responsibility and ownership that will help those lessons stick.

So what are the best bank accounts for kids?

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It’s true: Kids need to learn about how to manage their money, and teens need to learn how to properly use plastic. When was the last time you counted bills out to a cashier to pay for something? You really expect your teens to function well in a mostly-cashless society without practice with plastic?

So, while teaching teens to manage their money with the help of plastic is probably important, the next issue is whether or not a prepaid debit card is a good idea. And, on top of that, you need to ask yourself whether or not a prepaid debit card endorsed by a celebrity a good idea.

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What happens when banks buy banks? You get a mess of ABA routing numbers.

In a process that is years in the making, I’ve been consolidating more accounts I no longer need. This time, my Capital One Banking account is the one that is getting the ax. I opened the account years ago because of a Costco promotion that gave it a pretty good interest rate. When Capital One ended the relationship in the middle of 2012 and the interest bonus ended that calendar year, I decided I was going to close it. It’s March, I’m about three months behind schedule, but today I took the first step in cutting my ties – I added it as an external transfer to one of my other accounts.

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A few years ago, during the depths of the credit crisis and new legislation, banks were scrambling for ways to generate more revenue. With there long time friend Mr. Overdraft gone (and the ability to re-order it to increase fee revenue), many experts predicted the death of the free checking account. Now that we’ve exited the credit crisis, was the prediction of the death of free checking accurate?

Nope.

Some banks instituted fees but then offered easy ways to get out of them, which is like not having them in the first place. So where do you need to go to find free checking?

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It’s been a long time since I found something funny on a statement, so long that sometimes I feel like even a quick scan of my statements is a waste of time. However, it just takes one strange charge to remind you how important it is to review your statements each month and to never waver. Banks do a great job of stopping fraud and so it’s very easy to become complacent. Thieves love complacency!

Just a few weeks ago, I was looking through my Bank of America statement when I saw this little gem:


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Did you hear? Ally Financial failed the Fed’s stress test. Of the 18 banks they tested, 17 passed and Ally Financial failed to maintain a Tier 1 Common ratio above 5% under a “severely adverse” economic scenario. If only these stress tests were performed over five years ago, say before Washington Mutual or IndyMac collapsed, then maybe it might mean something.

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We all know that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures each depositor up to $250,000 per insured bank and it’s an insurance policy that is as good as gold (OK, technically not as good… but pretty solid). Sometimes we forget, as we saw the run on IndyMac a few years ago (it was actually most 4 years ago to the day), but the FDIC insurance has always covered every depositor and no depositor has ever lost an insured penny.

That said, not everything you keep with your bank is covered by FDIC insurance. Many people learned that recently with Hurricane Sandy but also back in previous hurricanes, as high water flooded many bank vaults. Here are a few of the things the FDIC does not insure at the bank.

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When I first started working, I had just moved from Pittsburgh to Baltimore and was without a local bank. I had a bank account, it was just for a local Pittsburgh bank (and a credit union back home in New York) and so when I learned that my first check was going to be paper, I needed a solution.

For me, the simplest solution presented itself in the cafeteria of my new workplace – my company, Northrop Grumman, had it’s own credit union and so I opened an account there. Nowadays, if you have an online savings account with the likes of Ally Bank or ING Direct (now CapitalOne360), you can deposit the check with your phone (assuming it’s not over $3,000). Back then, you actually had to find an ATM or a teller!

So what if you don’t have a bank account or you can’t or don’t want to open a new bank account? We have some options.

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