When many of us think of American Express, we think of credit cards and charge cards. However, American Express has also been getting into banking — at least the savings aspect of banking. American Express offers a personal savings account with a competitive annual percentage yield and they give it a clever name – American Express Personal Savings.

If you are interested in an account that can allow you to grow your money, especially if you have an emergency fund, the American Express Personal Savings account might not be such a bad thing.

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Last year, the furor over Bank of America’s proposed $5 a month debit card fee slowed some of the efforts by banks to introduce new fees. However, even during that time, some banks were quietly testing out account fees in limited markets. Those market tests are expanding, and banks continue to roll out new fees — especially on checking accounts — gradually.

The new round of fees aren’t as straightforward as a flat monthly fee, though. Instead, banks are instituting account minimums that result in fees if they aren’t met. Keep an eye out for some of the new bank fees that may be coming your way.

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Before the popularity of online banks with their high yield savings accounts, you never transferred money directly out of a savings account. You usually transferred it to your checking account and then write checks, withdrew cash, or used a debit card. Regulation D didn’t matter to you, the limit of 6 ACH transfers didn’t matter to you, and you were never penalized for it.

Now, with everyone trying to optimize their savings to maximize their accrued interest, it’s happening more and more often and it’s pissing people off because banks are charging them fees and, when it happens too often, closing these accounts.

So what is Regulation D and why is there this limit of 6 transfers?

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One of the best ways to help your child learn the value of money, and to help him or her improve financial habits, is to make use of a savings account. Your child can watch the balance grow, and learn the value of earning interest, and saving up for a future goal.

A savings account can be a good way for children to get excited about reaching goals. Such an account can be used as a way to set benchmarks, and you can find ways to encourage your children to work toward reaching their savings goals.

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In 2011, the Occupy Movement focused attention on the nation’s credit unions when they launched a national campaign that resulted in 650,000 people dropping their banks and switching to a credit union. Although that number was later revised lower, 2011 was the year that many people tried their local credit union for the first time.

Still, many of us put our money in big banks because that’s what our parents told us to do. My parents were loyal credit union customers but for a short time I was an unhappy customer at a large bank before switching back to a credit union. Here’s what I learned.

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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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