Alabama Central Credit Union is among the oldest financial organizations in US. It was established in 1938, in the times of depression when US economy was still tumbling due to the financial crisis which started in 1929. Yet the company managed to survive due to its professional management and working ideology.

Goodwill of ACCU

The early reputation of the company is still adding to the value and Alabama Central Credit Union is still considered to be an institute of good repute. There is always a rising bar of membership graph. This signifies the general trust people have on the services of Alabama Central Credit Union.

On Scale Of Judgment Parameters

Any financial institution is known and judged by the variety of consumer services it offers, the ease of services it offers, and overall, the customer support it offers. When we judge Alabama Central Credit Union on these fronts, we achieve a good result. The company has provided admiring services in all of the areas mentioned above.

Structural Performance

The organization serves over 800 companies within Alabama state. The organizational structure is well formed to serve thousands of employees of these companies with high quality of financial services. The composition of services is specially designed to meet the immediate and general financial needs of groups and individuals.

Checking Services

If we analyze the checking services, we observe well managed units of service offerings. Check Plus, Money Manager Account, Debit Cards, and Direct Deposits are few services which are known for their quality, integrity, and timely services.

Check Plus Offer

The Check Plus has no monthly fees and is available to state wide consumers without the requirement of any minimum balance limits. A regular monthly statement record for each consumer, with choices of unlimited check writing, consumer’s own preference of check designs, and carbon copy checks, is also offered. Read the full story

If you are in touch with the news and aware of updates around, you would have probably came across a new term called the Credit CARD Act. And like many other clients, you also might be curious how this thing will influence you, your current credit card, and your power to get credit in the future.

Why Credit Card act?

Sometimes clients were traced quite confused and encumbered, regarding the practices of credit card.

Especially in this bothersome business related atmosphere, lawmakers desired to be sure that clients can easily access both credit and to pay back the amounts they owe. To cope up with the problems of clients and lawmakers desire, the Credit CARD Act is a sequence of improvements to the Truth in Lending Act.

Benefits for Cardholders

The importance of this legislation is satisfaction of client, easy billing and payment routine, more regularity regarding rate inflation’s and more moderate fees. Bank of America is agreeing with the CARD Act in ways that best go on the demands of clients.

Bank of America put in action many alterations included in the Credit CARD Act in February 2010. Below in this article, you shall see some supplementary alterations that begun in August 2010.

The freshest alterations beginning in August 2010 contains:

Late payment fees are reduced

The amount of late fees will be decreased, and will be dependent on the number of delayed payments you enact. The first delayed payment; the fee of $25 will be charged. If some more dues are late in the period of next six months, fee would be increased to $35 for each supplementary happening.

Subsequently, if your payments are on time for the period of next six months in a row, the late payment fee you were charged will return to $25. Furthermore, the amount of your late dues payment fee will never be more than your least payment. For example, if your least payment is $20, your late payment fee cannot be profuse than $20. At Bank of America, late payment fee is never charged if balance in client’s account is $100 or less.

Read the full story

The existing customers of Bank of America can expect a change in the fee after the first half of 2011 if they are not paying any attention towards the new banking rules, which are recently stated. Bank of America is trying to recover lost revenue by the new set of rules ordained by the government of America. They are deciding to put fees on a new sort of bank account.

Ways to reduce or avoid BofA fees

In 2010, it was reported that Bank of America is introducing an innovative system which will help to reduce costs. One can cut down the cost by following a strategy that promotes the customers to manage high bank balance and to use maximum bank account features. The Customers who are following these simple strategies will be rewarded by not having these new fees on their bank accounts.

For Instance, following these tasks will help customers to get fees waived:

• Usage of Bank of America’s credit card monthly
• Maintaining a high bank balance in their checking accounts
• Refrain from using tellers.
• By receiving statements electrically.

Read the full story

The Chase Bank has informed about the recent alteration to its checking account holders’ thorough letters. You can stay away from the charges on monthly basis. However, if you do not fulfill the pre-requisites, you will have to pay a service levy every month. If you try to find out what are their intensions, then you will be able to understand the concept of options and service fee introduced by Chase.

You have to Pay the Fee, if You don’t Fulfill the Pre-requisites

In the Chase letter delivered to its checking account holders, it has been briefed that if you are unable to fulfill the pre-requisites, you have to make a payment of US$10 every month as its charges. Following are the points that have been described by SVP Chase; Ms. Jennifer Myhre. These points advise the account holders what they should do to stay away from this fee.

§  The regular balance of deposit accounts alone or by combining with investment accounts should be at least US$5,000 or more

§  To make a payment of US$25 or more. This is without the inclusion of monthly service fee.

§  The account should have one direct deposit of minimum US$500 or more than that

Read the full story

Opening a separate business bank account offers many benefits to small businesses. Some of the benefits, the owners of small businesses take are: they can write checks, they can avail value added services from banking system, they can better manage the finances of business, can improve their credit standing.

Advantages of Opening Business Bank Account

The significance of maintaining a separate bank account for your small business could not be ignored. It not handles all your routine business transactions conveniently, but it also saves your precious time and cost. It simplifies book-keeping also. Opening a business bank account does not require much money or time. Even some banks tender account opening facilities free of costs not only to individuals but also to enterprises.

Most of the banks are adopting the customs of providing access to your bank account through internet (E-banking). They allow you to operate your bank account online. You can pay your bills, monitor your deposits or schedule your routine payments online at your own end. If you are running small business, with e-banking, you can simply operate your bank account without incurring additional costs.

Read the full story

In the past year 2010, ATM fees raised to its highest point. The average ATM fee is a fee that is charged by the owner of ATM to the non-customer. This fee rose five percent in the year 2010, from $2.22 to 2.33. Banks, who are decreasing the ATM fees by over 3 to 1 dominated by those who increased the fees. Here are five cities which charged the highest fee for ATM during the year 2010, let’s have a look on them.

1: Seattle

Seattle has been the top of the list of cities charging high ATM surcharges during 2010. The fees which were charged in this city were recorded $2.69.

ATM customers found it difficult to pay such a huge fee on their ATM usages. The national average ATM surcharge was recorded as the $2.33 in the same city during the same period.

2: Denver

Denver was declared on second position on the list of five cities charging high ATM surcharges. The ATM fee which was recorded in Denver during 2010 was only few 4 cents behind the Seattle. The fee was $2.65. On the other hand the average national ATM surcharge was recorded same as the Seattle i.e. $2.33. Both of these cities share the same national average.

3: Huston

In Huston, during the year 2010, banks were charging ATM fee almost as higher as the other two cities. Huston came on number three on the list of cities where banks increased their ATM fee.

Read the full story