Banks for You!

Cash Back shopping sites such as Ebates, Big Crumbs, and Mr. Rebates get paid for sending customers to online merchants. They then share some of that cash with the customers who went through their shopping site to make the purchase. It is a simple process. You log in to the cash back site of your choice and then click through to the online merchant where you want to make a purchase. After you check out you will get a percentage of the purchase price back in your cash back account. These percentages are usually 1% – 7% but they can be even higher. Some of them also offer bonuses for signing up. Such as:

Ebates – They currently offer a $5 sign up bonus and have one of the largest selection of merchants to choose from.

Mr. Rebates - They also offer a $5 sign up bonus. They have the best cash back percentage for a lot of merchants.

Big Crumbs – They do not currently offer a bonus but they do have a large amount of merchants to choose from and competitive cash back percentages. You can also check out the BigCrumbs Deals page for great deals that are added on top of the cash back.

Once you sign up for any of these cash back shopping sites you can earn money for referring new users just like I do. Not o

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I am a 27-year-old contractor now working in Iraq. I’ve paid off all the outstanding credit card debt on my credit report as well as my graduate-school loans, and my undergraduate loans are current. It is taking some time for my credit scores to improve. I wanted to invest in some rental properties, but because of the current state of my scores, it is looking harder to accomplish by the day. Would you recommend placing a healthy down payment on a vehicle, making the payments on time and then pursuing my investments?

Answer: An installment loan such as a car loan can indeed improve your credit scores as long as you make the payments on time and don’t overextend yourself. Clearly, though, this purchase will have to wait until you’re back home, since any credit you get abroad won’t help your credit scores in the U.S.

While you’re waiting for your scores to improve, you can build up your savings — real estate investors need a fat cushion to cover down payments, repairs, maintenance and vacancies — and learn more about the skills you’ll need to be a successful investor. You don’t need to waste your money on expensive seminars, since everything you need to know is available in bookstores and libraries. One book to get y

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But, as my colleague Penny Crosman of Bank Systems & Technology reports, the U.Ks The Financial Services Authority has fired a warning shot across the financial industry’s bows with regard to protecting customer data. The FSA fined the U.K. operation of Zurich Insurance 2,275,000 (about $3.5 million) for failing to have adequate systems and controls in place to prevent the loss of customers confidential information. As Penny reports:

According to the FSA, the fine is the highest levied to date on a single firm for data security failings. This punishment follows the loss of 46,000 customers personal details, including identity information and in some cases bank account and credit card information, details about insured assets and security arrangements, through the year-long loss of a backup tape.

It seems odd that in the current high-scrutiny environment any insurance company would take any kind of chance regarding the security of customer information, but clearly operational risk management is a moving target. Read the full article about the FSAs ruling here.

M&T Bank is currently offering multiple bank bonuses for doing various actions. You can get a $25 bonus or more for opening a checking account with direct deposit. A $25 bonus for adding overdraft protection and a $25 bonus for adding Web Bill Pay. There are various conditions so you will want to read the details about the bonuses carefully for signing up. Visit the bank promo page for more information about this bank bonus.

I am an Apple guy I switched from PCs six years and two laptops ago, and I’m on my second iPhone (I had one of the first-generation, EDGE-only slugs and now have a 3GS). But in my heart I know the iPad, as cool as it looks and as fun as it is to monkey around with occasionally, leaves a lot on the table in terms of what a tablet computer could truly be capable of. I’m fine with the “walled garden” approach on my iPhone I don’t need a ton of functionality for a screen the size of an index card but if I’m going for something that’s more computer than phone, I want more options, especially at that price point.

That’s why when I read at InformationWeek about HP’s coming new tablet, and in the Wall Street Journal about a proposal from LG, I got excited. I’m not embarrassed to say that I would really like to own a tablet.My MacBook Pro is nice, but I don’t want to always have it on my lap when I’m just noodling around online it gets hot. Of course, straining to read articles or e-mails on my iPhone for more than a few minutes isn’t much of a trade-off.

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