- The Finance Gourmet

Can You Get a Single Check from the Bank?

July 7, 2024July 23, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

Although checks are less commonly used than they once were, there are certain instances where writing a check is the only option, or just the better option. You can get a checkbook from the bank by ordering checks at your bank or credit union. You can save money if your bank’s check books are too expensive by ordering checks from Costco or other companies if your bank marks their checks up too high. However, that might be overkill if you only need a single check, or just a few starter checks from your bank or credit union. Can you get a single check from the bank? If you want the bank to issue a check on your behalf, you can get a cashier’s check, or bank check. Most banks and credit unions will print a small number of checks for their customers on demand if you come into the branch. Usually, these few checks are printed at the bank and come with a new account or loan as a way to provide access to the new account while a full order of printed checks is on the way, but they’ll usually print some for free if you just ask. At …

Are High Interest Checking Accounts Worth It?

January 4, 2024April 5, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

There are a lot of high-interest checking accounts out there these days, but is a high-interest checking account worth it? The answer depends not only on how you use your checking account, but also the details of each account. As is so often the case with personal finance, the devil is in the fine print details. Be sure to understand all of the fine print before rushing off to transfer your checking accounts. Check out my Acorns review. High-Interest Checking Account Qualifications The first thing you want to look at is how to qualify for a high interest checking account. At most banks, getting the highest interest rate on your checking account requires you to make a minimum number of debit card transactions. That is because the bank earns money on each one of those transactions. In a way, with every debit card purchase you make, you earn the money the bank uses to pay you the higher interest. You also are usually required to get a direct deposit into the checking account each month. For many people, the only direct deposit they could get on a monthly basis is their paycheck. The idea is that by requiring a direct …

$400 Wells Fargo Free Checking Offer

September 13, 2022June 13, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

I have been in the personal finance game long enough to have seen some trends. One of those trends is the increase in free money offers, zero interest offers, and cash back offers, like the $400 Wells Fargo Free Checking offer that showed up in my mail. If you are in your 30s or 40s, you can probably remember the opposite, when credit cards were stingy with approval and even basic checking came with some sort of minimum fee. Banking and credit offers are a lagging indicator. They get good after the economy and markets get good and stay good after the rest of the market rolls over. Wells Fargo Checking $400 Bonus The Wells Fargo $400 bonus works like most cash bonus offers from other banks. There is no Wells Fargo $400 bonus scam, but you need to read all of the requirements before you leap into a new checking account. First, you have to use the special offer code when you open your new checking account with Wells Fargo. That’s the easy part. How Do I Get $400 from Wells Fargo? Then, you have to have $1,000 worth of qualifying direct deposits during the first 90 days your …

SoFi Banking Scam or Legit – A SoFi Banking Review

May 5, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

Taking another look at what SoFi offers. This time we are all about SoFi Banking reviews. Is SoFi Banking a Scam? SoFi Banking, including SoFi checking and SoFi savings are products of SoFi Bank, which is a member of FDIC. FDIC membership comes with numerous rules and regulations that are actively policed by several federal regulators. So, we can be quite sure that SoFi is not a scam at least in the stealing your money and disappearing sense. In fact, even if SoFi goes bankrupt, FDIC insurance ensures that you won’t lose a penny, up to $250,000 per account. Is SoFi Banking Legit? So, is SoFi Banking legit? Yes, but like many companies the bold face type, and look here hand waving, hides a few catches to SoFi Banking you might want to keep an eye on. Let’s take a review of SoFi banking and see what it offers. First, SoFi banking offers a very good 1.25% interest rate on your checking and savings deposits. That makes SoFi Checking and SoFi Savings worth having because that is the highest interest rate on savings or checking that you will find that applies to the whole balance. (Lots of banks advertise the …

Round Up Savings Plans

August 30, 2021January 23, 2020 by Finance Gourmet

Savings is really easy. You just spend less than you have, and voila! Savings! If you don’t want to save, then round up savings plans might be for you. Of course, talking about it, and doing it, are two different things. Recently, there have been several new products that offer to help make your savings easier. There are good reasons for this. Automatically saving money without you having to do anything is one of the most successful ways to save money. Some people have been using the IRS to do automatic savings for years. The idea is simple. You give your employer a W-4 Form with less deductions on it than you actually have, and they take more money out of your paycheck than necessary. Since the money comes out before you get it, you never have a chance to spend it, or even miss it. After a year, all of that extra money has built up into a sizable amount that you get back as a tax refund when you file your taxes. The disadvantages to this method, are also its advantages. Changing your W4 is often difficult making adjusting your savings troublesome and time consuming. Of course, this …

Where To Get Free Checking

October 4, 2017March 3, 2016 by Finance Gourmet

If you know anything at all about personal finance, you know that big banks are financial institutions for big suckers. Right now, with interest rates at, a little bit over zero, everywhere, it isn’t as easy to tell, but big banks have never been good deals for average customers. Big banks are good deals for big money. Are you big money? Here is an easy way to tell. What interest rate do you get on your CDs and other accounts? If you get the posted rates, then you are not big money. If you get a rate negotiated by you and the bank manager because you business is so valuable, then you might be big money. Credit Unions Are Better Than Banks – Always There are numerous studies that show free checking is disappearing from big banks. Everyone already knows this, but until someone goes out and actually crunches the data, you don’t have a news story. Now, we’ve got a story and a money headline. Only 38 percent of banks offer no-strings, free checking. However, nearly 72 percent of credit unions offer free checking. By the way, this story NEVER changes. Credit unions are always better than banks for …

Use Accounts to Save and Budget

September 25, 2015 by Finance Gourmet

I talk a lot about the psychology of money. The reality is that no matter how much something makes sense mathematically, it just may not work for most people because money isn’t just something we move around on a spreadsheet. One of the most common questions I see are in the form of “What should I do with $5,000,” or “How should I invest $3,000?” The answer is to put it in your savings unless you currently have enough money saved for your emergency fund and short-term goals, otherwise, put it in one of your investment accounts. People don’t like this answer. Why? Money psychology. Use More Accounts to Save One of the problems with money on a personal financial level is that it comes and goes so easily, often without really noticing or appreciating it. Consider a man (or woman) age 35. He earns $120,000 per year, has a mortgage, a car payment, some nice hobbies and he puts money away for his kid’s college and his own retirement. Honestly, that’s pretty great and he should be (and is) pretty happy. Financially speaking, this means that each month he earns $10,000. His company takes out $5,000 for taxes, insurance premiums, …

Good Enough Checking From Your Bank or Brokerage

March 4, 2014January 7, 2014 by Finance Gourmet

I was going through my stack of mail to look at (separate from the stack that has things that actually need taken care of) and came across an offer for Fidelity’s mySmart Cash Account. Intrigued, I decided to take a look at the Fidelity checking account that they were so proud of that they included a glossy little flier to advertise it. The result? What the—? Regular Bank Checking Sucks This Bad? The Fidelity myCash account boasts exactly two features that do not count as minimum basic features for a checking account. First, it pays interest. How much interest? Well, this is where Fidelity gets a little weasel-ish. The flyer says that I will “Earn three times the national average…” Um, OK. How much is that? Folks, it isn’t even in the fine print, that’s how much the rate must be worth! A visit to Fidelity’s website reveals the depressing answer. A balance of less than $5,000 in a myCash checking account will earn a whopping 0.20% APR. Whoo hoo! But wait! Maybe if you have over $5,000 it is worthwhile? Survey says? 0.20% again. Yes, go through all of the steps and take the time to open a Fidelity …