Just a quick note to let people know that Jude the blogging talent from NOBS Network, is leaving that scene for greener pastures and more serious investments (I hear real estate). His blog has been a great source of information to many, including myself, over the past two years so we sorry to see him go but exciting to know what they are working on next.

He politely requests if you want to keep up with their daily grind to sign on to the mailing list.

It’s another 3 days before I pull down this site. Sign up via our E-letter for the latest url of our newest publication purely on investments. You won’t hear anything from this site anymore! *nobshyip.net

This is a very sharp and honest guy. I think it will always a good idea to keep up with his businesses and an ear to the ground for what he’s looking at next. Thanks for all the quality posts Jude.

Check out Mint.com.

This a free web based solution for managing your finances and it just might save you some dough. Mint helps to find lower prices on the financial services you use each month and higher rates for your interest earning accounts.

Mint automatically categorizes all your purchases, showing you how much you spend on gas, groceries, parking, rent, restaurants, DVD rentals and more, with amazing precision. An advanced alerting system highlights any unusual activity, low balances, unwanted fees and charges, and upcoming bills so you’re in constant contact with your money – effortlessly.

Your registration can be anonymous using any email address.

Mint is connected to 3500 financial institutions and, “…Mint constantly searches through thousands of offers from hundreds of providers to find the best deals on everything from bank accounts to credit cards; cable, phone and Internet plans, and more. Mint’s suggestions are “unique to you” as they are based on your individual spending patterns. For example, if you have $20,000 in a bank account that’s earning no interest, Mint might recommend a high interest rate savings account from ING or HSBC. Acting on that suggestion would give you an extra $900 in interest income over a year.”

Since their system is constantly being updated, your accounts within Mint.com are also always up to date.

They have a very informative financial blog also.

I’m going to try this service out and I’d love some reader feedback if anyone else wants to sign up and try it.

This month marked Google Checkout’s one year anniversary. Originally called the ‘PayPal Killer’, Google Checkout has gained wide market acceptance over this past year.

Additionally, PayPal has done very well in the same period.

The public appetite for online purchases and Internet fund transfers has grown enough in the last twelve months that it now feeds both of these Internet giants and one or two more just like them (Amazon.com). E-commerce opportunities both vertical & horizontal today seem plentiful in today’s online retail world.

Many users who compare Google Checkout to PayPal will tell you that Google is easier to use. They report Checkout as having fewer steps and easier to understand options. Of course, Google Checkout is just an ewallet for purchases online. While it is super handy when shopping it does not have the important features that a PayPal account can deliver. The ability to send and receive money online using your email address is not yet available on Google Checkout.

Both are free and easy to set up. Both require a credit card verification in order to get your account working.

When checking out and paying for a new purchase, users report Google Checkout to be much easier than PayPal. Users also report that Google Checkout appears more seamless and consistent to shoppers offering a smooth checkout. One of the biggest and most obvious differences is that Google is not accepted at nearly as many places as PayPal.

Both services are considered Alternate Payment Systems which is different from directly using a credit card online. Both services offer online privacy and protection. Your personal information stays private and is not shared before during or after the online sale. However, Checkout will sometimes give merchants your billing address and the last four digits of your credit card, while PayPal says it won’t unless you use the one-time option. On the other hand, PayPal shares your e-mail address with merchants that request it, while Checkout lets you keep that private and Google will forward receipts and other important e-mails to you.

But Checkout isn’t yet accepted where it counts. Google claims tens of thousands of merchants accepting Checkout, compared with the millions already using PayPal.

PayPal is better known overseas. You can buy goods from about 190 markets with PayPal compared with some 140 for Checkout. With PayPal, you can receive money in about 50 countries, while Checkout accepts U.S. and U.K. merchants only. And while PayPal is offered in 17 currencies, Checkout deals only with dollars and pounds.

Most importantly, Checkout won’t let you receive money with regular accounts you’d need a special merchant account and provide a Social Security number or federal tax identification number. With both Checkout and PayPal, consumers are charged nothing to send money or make payments.

Merchants are charged based on transaction amounts. Checkout’s rates are much easier to understand: It’s 2 percent plus 20 cents per transaction; fees are waived through the end of the year and beyond that merchants can receive subsidies by spending money on Google search ads. With PayPal, fees depend on your account type, monthly sales amounts and whether the buyer is sending money from a bank account or credit card.

Google does offers some very helpful discussion forums.

• Google Checkout Merchant forum Checkout merchants share questions and information with one another.
• Google Checkout Developers Forum Google Checkout API

In May I wrote a piece about how debit and credit card companies are marketing products to younger and younger users. The title of the post was, Credit Cards For Kids: Get Them Started Early & Have A Customer For Life. If you read the comments below the post, you will find some input from the owner of PAYjr.

PAYjr is a very popular web site that takes a direct approach to help parents teach children as young as 7, 9 and 11 the benefits of using plastic, the proper way to spend with credit cards….well it teaches them….let’s say practical ways to manage their young finances using online card related tools and provides info for the parents to help the child becomes a better prepared - more responsible card user. The explanation from their web reads,

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, PAYjr provides smart, practical and easy-to-use online tools that help parents teach their children, kids, and teens about money management and budgeting.

I must also say that this company and their products are ‘monster’ popular with the American public. For kids and parents looking at this type of product, PAYjr. must be a good one because many people use them and they have received wide praise.

After posting the earlier piece, I heard from David S. Jones the CEO of PAYjr. He is not only a very smart guy but also nice person and good at his job. We traded a few emails and I appreciate that he took time out of his schedule for some comments.

The focus of my original post was not to say that PAYjr or any other similar service had the intention of teaching kids the wrong things. They all seemed to have good intentions. The overall point I was trying to show was that I don’t agree with trying to teach a youngster personal finance using a plastic card or only an online account. I don’t think that is an appropriate way to prepare a future earner for their years ahead.

I see that the desired outcome of their teaching is to help kids better understand money management and to budget their money. However, my belief is that kids won’t always grow up to remember the lessons of their youth, but they will never stop associating ‘money’ with that useless plastic card.

Read more

Paying bills online is a ’snap’ with Billeo. Now its more popular & convenient than ever.

In case you are not yet familiar with Billeo, they have combined some excellent software, a supercharged ‘bill pay-shopping’ toolbar with the ability to pay just about any of your bills online with a credit or debit card. Plus they give bonus points for all you credit card users. Online bank account not required.

How does it work?

Simple….just download their Billeo toolbar. As you pay your bills each month, the software learns your spending habits and will alert you the next time you need to pay one of your bills. It even forwards you directly to that company’s web page where it can also fill in the account number, password and even your credit card.

Included in their package is an online shopping assistant and as mentioned, the password assistant. This total package is a bit like RoboForm on steroids. Its all super convenient and a big ‘time saver’. After the payment is made the user will receive an immediate “Paid” confirmation and web receipt.

Billeo is not a start up or even new, they have been around since 2003 and their Billeo Directory reflects that….this set of listings has to be one of the largest directory of companies that accept online bill payment available on the Internet. Using Billeo I’m told over 80% of US consumers’ bills can be paid online. Listings include nearly 6,000 companies such as utilities, mortgage and cable companies, standard phone and wireless service providers, and even credit card companies. Their Billeo Toolbar can do it all and cheaper than your bank.

If you are into paying online, Billeo is for you!

While there is no recognized industry push for this type of card evolution, at least one proud individual in a manic burst of thinking, has published his 11 page ’spec’ on how to change the prepaid card industry.

It is entitled - Gift Cards, Post-Pay Style aka The End of Trading Money for Nothing - As I commented on his web, “It took a lot of guts to post this…”

“Tie a credit card or checking account to the gift-card, and only charge the account when your friend actually spends the card. Gift cards now become FREE, until they’re actually spent. It’s the American way: why pay now when you can pay later, with no finance charges to boot?”

Download the RTF

“Feed the live Tuna mayonnaise” the world needs idea-men and free thinkers.

This sums it up,

“…there is no supply chain, product chain or merchandise management issue there. It is just cash and digital cash. There’s money to be made in money.”* bbcamerican.blogspot.com

Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer. It is also the largest corporation and private employer in the United States. Everyone walking into a Wal-Mart store and every shopper that buys merchandise will now be offered the store chain’s new prepaid card solution. That translates into a LOT of new potential card holders and deposits. This card is not only being heavily marketed in stores but it is also available from the Internet.

“We got these new Wal-Mart MoneyCards at our store this weekend — and they’re insidious. They parked a huge display at the main door — immediately as you enter the store by Register 1 — and small displays in front of every Customer Service register.” * bbcamerican.blogspot.com

This Card is issued by GE Money Bank, pursuant to license from Visa U.S.A., Inc. Card services provided from Green Dot Corporation.

Recently declined for a banking license in the US, Wal-Mart is looking to expand their financial operations beyond no fee ATMs and check cashing. Prepaid cards are a perfect way to capture customer and non-customer deposits. Especially the ‘low end’ of the market, the immigrants…..the unbankable crowd, better known as the Wal-Mart shopper.

Back in early 2005, Wal-Mart was cornered with an application to open a so-called ‘industrial bank’ in of all places Utah. But after much uproar the application was withdrawn. Now, here they are hammering their daily customers for pay check deposits and ATM transactions.

Loading their card can be done in stores using cash or your paycheck. The card is basically identical to the other Green Dots products you may find hanging on a rack in just about any convenient store or grocery in the States. However, considering Wal-Mart’s retail marketing advantage…..their fees are pretty hefty. Paycheck loading will cost you $3.00 per load and cash loads are $4.64 each, but that’s not the half of it, visit the ATM with this card and the card fee is $1.95 per use. You might think Wal-Mart, the largest employer in America, could shrink their card fees down to a nominal amount unlike every other prepaid card thief issuer in the US.

With the offering and marketing of this card, there is no doubt that Wal-Mart is reaching out for customer’s non bank deposits.

“Also, and this is what customers find the most annoying - there is a prompt after cashing EVERY paycheck - “Would you like to load your check onto a Wal-Mart Moneycard?” That’s right - every cashed paycheck. Every time. All day I had to keep telling people “Do you want a MoneyCard? Then hit NO.” * bbcamerican.blogspot.com

There was a big movement 3-4 years back to get local Wal-Marts to happily accept the very Libertarian Silver Liberty Dollars but that faded after an extraordinary effort to penetrate the hard shell of the corporate giant. It is obvious now with the issuing of this card and Wal-Mart’s sneaky attempt at a US banking license the idea of providing value behind their word is already half way down that slippery slope.

Our blogger friends over at Behind The Counter say it best. ….if it looks like a bank, walks like a bank, and quacks like a bank, is it a bank? With the Wal-Mart, you never know.

(Note to readers, I don’t shop at Wal-Mart, not even the ones near by in Costa Rica and Mexico.)

There’s a great documentary style movie available on DVD entitled “Super Size Me” which discusses a very important point about consumer marketing in America.

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, shows how one fast food chain targets & markets directly to very young children. The desired long term effect of getting them started early in life is they will become a return customer because they are comfortable with your product. Its amazing to see his point of view backed up by the restaurant’s marketing campaigns which include cartoons, toys, movies, games and all sorts of gimmicks targeting preteen children.

As the story goes, “Get them started using your product at the earliest possible age and you will have a customer for life.” Additionally, this month Jupiter Research, which helps companies profit from the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies, came out with a new report entitled, Payment Preferences Online: Managing the Generation Gap Between Mature and Young Adults.

Current marketing research suggests that accepting a product at such an early age should keep consumers coming back for decades. This is a well understood technique through out the marketing and advertising world.

After briefly reviewing the Jupiter Research report, I wanted to take a closer look at how credit cards are marketed to teen & younger users. Especially how the card companies were using the internet and ‘digital money’ style webs in their ploy to attract really young potential life long ‘credit card users’.

I found the PAYjr web site. The PAYjr Prepaid MasterCard^® is issued by MetaBank pursuant to license by MasterCard International Incorporated. This web separates users into two categories depending on their age. First there is the “PAYjr Chore & Allowance System” for web visitors 12 years and younger. For the more mature crowd, 13 and over, they offer the “PAYjr Prepaid MasterCard”.

The ‘Chore & Allowance System’ for 6-12 year olds touts,

“… free financial education and an online chore and allowance system for your kids to be able to track their chores and be rewarded for completing them. Teach your child the value of hard work and allow them to clearly see the connection between doing their chores and financial reward.”

I found myself asking several questions….Do you really need a computer and the Internet to keep track of your 8 year old’s allowance? Does creating daily online tasks for a 9 year old using the ‘Chore & Allowance System’ database really teach hard work….or is all this marketing directed at teaching adolescents they need to learn how credit cards work?

Read more

That MasterCard commercial is great. You know the one where the guy running the marathon steps into a convenient store, grabs a soda, swipes his card and runs out. Ah, the luxuries of modern life, how did we live so long without them all of those new digital money products?

But what about that guy you noticed riding the subway who casually passed a small strange looking black box right over your back wallet pocket and then walked along doing it to others? (the electronic pickpocket) Or how about that key card you have from work? Did you know that can be read from almost 30 feet away and tracks the movement of its card holder through hallways, offices and even the elevator or garage?

Just because you have those fancy new RFID cards tucked safely in your pocket or purse that does NOT mean they have stopped broadcasting your personal and financial information.

I’ve blogged this important topic several times before and each time I come back to one quality product which is guaranteed to protect your card information. Kena Kai Lifestyle Gear (DataSafe® Wallets) makes some awesome wallets and leather goods for protecting those very important RFID cards. These wallets for both men and women have built in protective material (Up to (17) Layers of RF Shielding Material) which prevents the card information from broadcasting beyond the inner protection of the gear. When your new cards are in these wallets they cannot be picked up by readers just inches away. They also make a beautiful travel passport cover because today - even most of the US Passports have chips.

The DataSafe® Wallets are exclusive patent-pending wallets that are Government Certified to protect you against the rising threat of Identity Theft and Tracking.

The DataSafe® Wallets are the ONLY wallets to be tested and approved to meet, or exceed, the security protocols set forth in HSPD12 (Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12) for “Electromagnetically Opaque Sleeves”.

There is a lot more press and reviews on this product, I’m not the only one who loves them so if you have RFID, I suggest you check out this web and read up.

Need to shop online but don’t have a credit card?

In the US, you can waddle down to any grocery store or convenient store and buy a prepaid Visa or MasterCard. Then just turn on the old PC and go shopping. Of course if your purchase is not exactly $25, $50 or $100 you are left with a strange unused balance. Lots of prepaid cards with odd balances…can be a waste of money if you are not careful.

eWallet Alternatives?

If you want to fund an online eWallet like PayPal, INSTADEBIT, Citadel, UseMyBank, Moneybookers, Neteller or Firepay can you simply buy a prepaid card? In all of the 7-11 stores around the globe have you ever seen $50 prepaid PayPal or Moneybookers card hanging on the rack next to those stale doughnuts? No, these online money giants relay on personal credit card funding, checks and bank accounts. Mainstream finance type stuff.

But what about all the Joe Public Internet users out there who just got paid and want to spend online? That prepaid Visa card with the left over balance gets old very fast! There is a growing army of online customers who want to spend and shop but are left with few cash-to-digital options…..however, that is changing in Europe, the UK and even the US.

The creative smart money minds around the globe are finding excellent solutions for all these people and cashing in big by targeting this market segment.

Online/offline cash payment solutions like toditoCard (Mexico), Webmoney (Global), SNAP Card (UK), Ukash (Europe & UK), Wallie-card (Netherlands), paysafecard (Europe & UK) and TrioPass (USA) are all now working directly with populations of people who have cash and want to spend it online. The market for these products which easily link cash money and digital money is growing rapidly because consumers are demanding it.

Products that stand out in this list are:

(1) paysafecards which can be purchased at values of £10, £25, £50, and £75 but users can combine up to ten paysafecards for any single transaction.

(2) Webmoney Transfer has teamed up with both Ukash and paysafecard to accept WM account funding in cash at hundreds of thousands of locations across Europe, Ireland and the UK. An added bonus for using this service is that Ukash funding is instant and free!

The next time you would like to shop online, look around for cash options. You will like what you find.