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New York Times Reports Bank Of America As Least Trusted Bank

February 10, 2010 By Paul (Founder, WorkAtHomeTruth) 2 Comments

“Forrester’s annual Customer Advocacy rankings, ranks nearly 50 financial services firms in the United States by the percentage of each firm’s customers who agree with the statement: “My financial provider does what’s best for me, not just its own bottom line.” The results are based on a survey of about 4,500 consumers.

The bottom seven of this year’s rankings, first to last, are Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, TD/Commerce, Fifth Third, Citibank, and in last place, HSBC.”

Click here to read the rest of the story.

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Closson Vs. Bank Of America Settlement Website – Bank Of America To Pay $35 Million:

“The lawsuit claims Bank of America encouraged its customers to use Bank of America debit cards and increased the number of fees charged to customers using Bank of America debit cards through the order in which such transactions are posted and the account balance information it provides. The lawsuit also claims that Bank of America authorizes debit card transactions that will result in overdraft fees; fails to warn customers that specific debit card transactions may result in overdrawn accounts; posts debit card and other transactions in high-to-low order; and provides account balance information to customers that is not current, accurate or as advertised. In addition, the lawsuit claims that Bank of America’s customer agreements are unconscionable, and that Bank of America does not provide customers with copies of account agreements until after they open their accounts”

Click here to visit ClossonSettlement.com

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Bank of America wins appeal on overdraft fees

The California Supreme Court overturned a billion-dollar class-action award against Bank of America Corp. ruling that banks can collect overdraft fees from accounts in which government benefits intended for subsistence are directly deposited.

From The Los Angeles Times:

The California Supreme Court overturns a 2004 class-action award to Social Security recipients from whose accounts the bank took fees for insufficient funds.

“Requiring banks to dishonor checks can harm the customer’s credit rating, result in the customer’s incurring fees and affect the customer’s relationship with merchants,” Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote for the court.

James C. Sturdevant, who represented the Social Security recipients said the court’s ruling would punish the poor.

“They don’t have a credit rating,” he said. “These are the poorest of the poor. They live on $800 a month.”

Click here to read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

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Business-owning Households More Likely Than Others to Have Higher Income and Wealth

February 7, 2010 By Paul (Founder, WorkAtHomeTruth) Leave a Comment

1/28/2010 SBA Office of Advocacy Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Does small business ownership help increase a household’s overall well-being? One way to look at this is to examine how the income and wealth of households owning small businesses changed in the most recent economic expansion and recovery period. That task was undertaken in a study just released by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy.

“The report released today finds that households owning small firms in the 1998-2007period were more likely than other households to be in the top 50 percent in income and wealth,” said Susan M. Walthall, Acting Chief Counsel for Advocacy. “It will be important to continue to examine this data series to assess the well-being of small businesses in the current economic environment.”

Income and Wealth: How Did Households Owning Small Businesses Fare from 1998 to 2007? by George W. Haynes, updates previous Advocacy-sponsored studies and is based on additional data from the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances. Household income is the sum of wages, salaries, interest, dividends, asset sales, rents, and other income sources. Household wealth is estimated by generating a balance sheet subtracting total liabilities from total assets. Findings include the following:

Households owning any business were significantly more likely to be high income earners in 2007 than in 1998; the largest percentage gain was among owners with more than one business.
In the latter part of the period—between 2004 and 2007—the likelihood that households owning a small business had a high income increased by 4.2 percent and the likelihood that they had a high level of wealth increased by more than 20 percent, compared with increases of 2.1 and 5.2 percent, respectively, in households not owning businesses.
 
The characteristics of households and businesses were somewhat different in 1998 than in 2007. By 2007, high income households were headed by younger people, while higher wealth households were headed by older people.
From 1998 to 2007, households not owning a business increased real mean wealth by just under 40 percent; the comparable increase for those owning a small business was 63.4 percent.

For a copy of the study, visit the Office of Advocacy website at www.sba.gov/advo.

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