This blog was set up after I had been scammed by METABANK when using their prepaid card. I cannot advise anyone to use any form of a prepaid card. The services you ask about are not within my focus area. Prepaid Cards basically give an interest free loan to a large corporate entity. METABANK lied to me about why I couldn’t get access to my own money and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to push the blame for what happened to me back off onto to me. The reality is that the very design of the METABANK PREPAID CARD was established to give METABANK full access and control of my cash money. All of the METABANK PREPAID CARDS require cash money so they can be loaded or re-loaded. My advice has been that consumers should also only do business using cash money. Given the horrible customer service that I encountered personally and which I observed personally happening to another person, one who is extremely well educated, who was told that the METABANK PREPAID CARD didn’t work because he hadn’t used it properly. I saw that no merchants would accept his METABANK CARD. This gave me the impression that the PREPAID CARD by design is faulty and seriously working against consumer’s better interests. http://www.tagpassiton.com/about/the-card.html I am not familiar with the term “Tag Card” so I did an online search for “Tag Card” The “Tag Card” information page says that they aren’t in it for the money just to serve non-profits, but you are still giving the money to a third party, a total stranger. “The TAG! card is an incentive to discover a new way of spending – to make shopping better for you and to make a positive difference in your community. It’s simple to use, comes with a free and handy key-fob and will save you a fortune. Guard it with your life.” The gimmick and the enticement is that you will save money by putting some money upfront. This upfront money will become totally out of your control. “TAG! is a community loyalty movement. That’s a real thing, although we definitely had to make it up first.” The term customer loyalty and here “community loyalty” is also another gimmick. The consumer is being encouraged to buy more from a specific vendor over other vendors because of this promise for special benefits and price reductions for the consumer. Still, cash money is handed over to an anonymous entity and therefore taken out of your control. The term “loyalty” is a marketing term to get merchants to opt in. The term “Loyalty” doesn’t imply better service or better products for consumers. If you want to support your local community. Go to those places and spend cash money there. Please know that many merchants have told me that for them to accept plastic cards that they must pay a fee. Meanwhile, you as the consumer also have fees attached to using those plastic cards. Thank you for bringing this term to my attention. By its very design, it appears to be yet another way to scam consumers. Are you an employee of METABANK or another agency like it? |
All posts in category getting out of debt
Tag Cards; Yet another gimmick
Posted by mrnd5 on February 20, 2013
https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/tag-cards-yet-another-gimmick/
No one will feel as motivated to get the METABANK Problem resolved as you will.
Meta Bank, South Dakota Complaints & Reviews – fraud
Meta Bank
Posted: 2012-11-10
Contact information: Meta Bank South Dakota United States |
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My mother is a victim of ID theft. Her SS and retirement were both hijacked and sent to Meta Bank of SDak. We’ve been trying to get their cooperation to freeze accounts and return funds, ect.
They have been stalling and untruthful. They are in league with scam artists!!! So far, over 3 months of my mom’s income has been stolen. We finally got her SS rerouted but Meta Bank is still holding her annuity checks and has lied about illegal activity going on under their umbrella of so called legal banking. They are immoral, unethical and ripping off defenseless old folks. They need to be shut down by the Government. Please report this to the proper authorities. Thank You. METABANK is doing this kind of scam still!!! The only comment that I would have to make is that the child of this woman who is being scammed asks someone to report this to the proper authorities. This is what the mother and son should be doing. How did the mother’s money end up in METABANK’s banks control? All complaints basically tell the same story: METABANK keeps citizens from their own money so that METABANK can get an interest free loan using that person ‘s money. The person who can’t access their own money is lied to by METABANK. The lies are all so similar that it appears that the METABANK Phone Representatives are given a list of lies to tell customers. If this happens to you, and no one is immune from this kind of treatment from METABANK, please make formal complaints to every and all agencies, media outlets, and your elected officials. Make these complaints heard. If you don’t get satisfaction from your complaints, complain to someone else. Clearly there is no one regulating banks/fiancial institutions that operate more like loan sharks such as METABANK. Consumers must align and get the proper bank and financial regulations put in place to protect them from this kind of corporate crime as we have all experienced it as customers of METABANK. No one will feel as motivated to get the METABANK Problem resolved as you will. Our impression is that many of the sites created where consumers can make complaints have been created by the very entities about which consumers are complaining. Although other consumers can read your complaints. METABANK will not and has never corrected any of their internal practices in spite of numerous consumer complaints over a period of many years now… We find it rather bizarre that METABANK chooses to completely ignore their customer’s needs, to try to push blame off onto their own customer base for the problems created by METABANK itself, and to consistently lie to customers about why customers can’t access their own money. It seems odd that METABANK consistently fails to address consumers’ needs and concerns with the METABANK product. METABANK is essentially a collections agency and not a bank in the classic and customary sense. You are being cautioned to avoid using METABANK in any wayLook at the ads on the page of the “complaintsboard.com.” … They are the banks that are scamming so many Americans |
Posted by mrnd5 on February 19, 2013
https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/no-one-will-feel-as-motivated-to-get-the-metabank-problem-resolved-as-you-will/
Whatever you do, don’t get trapped into debt again.We got out from under those bills and you can too.
Get out of debt,
stay out of debt
By Darlene Campbell
Issue #67 • January/February, 2001
Decades ago it was advised of young high school graduates to deposit a set amount of money into the bank each month,
and when they retired they would be millionaires.
[That really was a good idea. Why did this concept change??? We have been let down by the banking system.]
Unfortunately, that philosophy fell by the wayside after World War II.
Today it is not unusual for young graduates to receive credit card applications by mail starting them on the road to indebtedness, not the road to wealth.
If you are in debt now, you should be working to clear all indebtedness during the next year.
[This is a very good idea. This is taking control of your own life. This is putting you in control of your own money so you can enjoy life. Do not take out more debt to pay off other debts!!!]
• We did it, and you can, too. We paid off credit card debt and doctor bills.
- We paid off the car and made double payments on the mortgage principle of our home with the intent of paying that off, too.
- But as the future began to look uncertain, we changed plans and sold our mortgaged home and obtained enough money from the equity to pay cash for a smaller home.
- Both my husband and I have even quit our jobs since having no debt means we need less income.
[Great idea to take control of your own lives!!! Many people are enslaved by interest, outrageous interest expenses and have to work at jobs they may not like.
They are poor living from pay check to pay check only to make the bank CEOs richer with huge annual incomes while living in misery.]
- We are not old enough for retirement and do not collect disability, retirement income, or welfare.
- Instead we have simply freed ourselves of debt and can now pursue other interests and earn sufficient money doing practically nothing.
[ These people exchanged indebtedness for the kind of life they really wanted!!!]
- We have enough money to eat, pay utilities, and put gas in two vehicles.
- I freeze a lot of food, and what we do not grow we purchase on sale.
- Most of our income comes from selling at flea markets and over the Internet.
[This family exchanged debt for a better quality of life. They are living the kind of life they want.
They are in control of all of their own assets. This kind of information you can trust because these people
aren’t trying to market you some scheme to get you into more debt]
Knowing how much you owe and how much you earn is not going to get you out of debt.
• You must learn to do with less,
• stop buying on credit,
• downsize what you already own,
and eventually you will be debt free.
Sounds easy enough, but most people find this is the most difficult part of getting out of debt. They don’t want to stop spending. Most people struggle to have more, not less.
• Where do you spend?
It is necessary to organize your financial records, then develop a plan for paying off creditors.
[The creditors want you to stay in debt. The PREPAID BANK CARDS keep you from your own money.
DEBIT CARDS work the same way because the banks have your money, earn interest from your money
and impose many restraints on you about even being able to access your own money when you need it the most.]
Gather the following records:
• your most recent pay stub,
• most recent bank statement,
• your checkbook,
• and all current credit card bills, medical bills, utility bills, insurance premiums, children’s allowance, pet care, installment loans, newspaper subscription, cable TV, transportation, etc.
Here, John is going over a worksheet to establish priorities and set deadlines
With these items in front of you, enter your income on the top line of a sheet of paper.
This is your worksheet.
List every known monthly expense, from the kids’ allowance to the mortgage payment, and add it up with a calculator. When you finish you will see how much you earn and where the bulk of your money is spent. On the same worksheet, list out-of-pocket or miscellaneous expenses—all those little expenses down to the smallest item such as a coffee break, hamburger, purchase of a key ring, or cigarette lighter. Pay close attention to these small expenditures because they add up to a significant sum on a monthly basis, and are almost always wasteful.
If you spend a lot unnecessarily, or are an impulse buyer, you probably can’t come up with a figure for miscellaneous out-of-pocket expenses.
In order to find out what you are spending unnecessarily, begin a journal of where your pocket money goes.
• When you have to take time to record each purchase, you will become less impulsive.
• Carry a small, inexpensive pocket notebook and list your spending as it occurs so you won’t forget.
• If you are shopping at a mall and stop for lunch, enter everything you purchased while you are eating, including your meal.
• If you buy a magazine, make the entry in your journal when you get back into your car.
Another way to keep track of such expenditures is to save the cash register receipts and enter them all into the journal at the end of the day.
Maintain this journal for one week, then multiply the sum total by four to find the amount spent in one month.
If you doubt this total, continue the journal for the entire month.
Enter this amount on the sheet of paper with your other expenses. Call this your out-of-pocket or miscellaneous expenses.
Categorize your monthly expenses by listing similar expenses in the same category on the worksheet.
- You may want to list monthly living expenses such as mortgage or rent, utilities, and gasoline separate
- from irregular expenses incurred on an annual or semiannual basis like insurance, taxes, and auto licenses.
- There are flexible expenses that are necessary but can be reduced, like food and clothing, over the counter drugs, toiletries, and out of pocket expense.
- Finally, there are questionable expenses that are wasteful and can be easily eliminated.
Now you can work on eliminating those expenses that are unnecessary.
Can you reduce the number of trips to the hairdresser? I have cut my husband’s hair for the last 35 years, and we save a bundle.
No more credit card,
[No more debit card, No more Prepaid Card either….
Why?…. You as a consumer give up all the control of your own
money when using prepaid or debit cards….
…Pay only using cash… PREPAID Bank Cards require cash upfront,
and then basically the bank gets an interest free loan from you, the consumer,
while charging you an additional fee to open the prepaid card….
…METABANK takes it one step further…..
METABANK decides when and how much you can spend of your own money..
We should be the ones who have full control of our own money!!!!!]
If you are charging $100 a month on credit cards, you must cut back at least $100 a month.
By cutting back $100 a month you can quit using your credit card which is the beginning of paying it off.
Take time to read your monthly credit card statement; it can be very enlightening.
-
What interest do you pay?
-
How is it figured?
-
Is it two cycle billing?
Most major department stores charge in the range of 20-21% interest, while bank credit cards charge from 5-9% as an attractive come-on, then raise the rate in six months to around 17%.
To be credit card free,
take the total you owe on credit cards
and divide it by the number of months in which you wish to be debt free.
The answer is the amount of cash you must pay every month, plus a little more to cover interest, to free yourself of that debt within the desired time.
Paying on several cards each month means you are paying interest to multiple creditors.
If a new credit card offers a low interest rate to entice you to pay off your other cards, take advantage of it, but plan to pay off this new card at the introductory low interest rate before the new, higher rate comes into effect.
Pay the most you can possibly afford and think how you are paying so much a month for goods or services that you purchased a year ago and may no longer use.
If you had the extra cash each month you would feel so free.
[We absolutely agree with the statement just above!!!]
You must be strict with yourself and make the commitment to pay off the debt within a specified time.
It means you will now
• buy less,
• make do,
• and recycle everything possible
to come up with the monthly payment.
Your reward is watching the balance drop rapidly.
But this only works if you stop using the card!
• The best way to do this is to put it in a safe place where you are not tempted to use it.
• Do not carry a credit card on your person.
• After you pay off the card, notify your creditor that you are destroying the card and want to cancel your account.
• This way you will not be subject to annual fees later, or tempted into using it.
When you have consolidated all your credit card debt into one card with a lower interest rate, you will probably wonder how you are going to meet such a large payment each month until it is paid off.
• It scared me, too. We consolidated our two cards into one four-digit debt.
• With only six months before the low introductory rate changed to a much higher rate, we divided the six into the total and came up with $350 a month.
• Our payment was high, but we persevered until it was paid off.
Found money
[This is a really good suggestion. Please read this part carefully!!]
Finding $350 a month was rough.
It’s more than some people pay in mortgage payments.
We made the payment every month and cut expenses everywhere else by pulling in our belts for a few months.
I relied heavily on “found money,” small amounts of money that I managed to save or set aside…..
Begin saving all your loose change.
John taught me this years ago by doing it diligently himself from the beginning of our marriage.
I never did it until we had to have the extra $350 a month.
• I put pennies in a tall bottle, nickels and dimes in a cream pitcher, and quarters in a face cream jar hidden out of sight.
• I discovered the bottle holds over $10 in pennies, the face cream jar holds $20 in quarters,
• and the cream pitcher holds $30 in nickels and dimes.
Get yourself some free coin rolls at the local bank.
• Put the paper rolls in a security box,
• and once every two or three months roll all your coins,
• or as many as you need to free space in the containers, and place the rolled coins in the security box.
You must work to make your found money grow, so every time you come home from shopping, separate the coins.
• When you pay for an item, use only bills to make sure you are given change in return which you can save.
• If you feel a little rich, buy some coins; ask the cashier to give you a dollar or two in quarters.
• You will be amazed at how you never miss this change, yet it seems to grow by the month.
• If you are diligent, you should be able to save several hundred dollars a year in this manner, which you keep in the security box for emergencies or deposit in a special account.
[ This explains how to save in a climate where we are encouraged to spend far beyond our means.
Being in debt creates misery for us. Being “debt-free” liberates us and makes us happier.
Buying more things will not make you happier!!!]
You can gain found money in your checking account by rounding up the checks you write to the nearest dollar in the check register.
• You don’t want to lose track of the actual amount of the check so write this amount in parenthesis next to it.
• This not only makes your check book easy to figure, it always leaves a little extra in reserve.
Another method of having found money in the checking account is to draw a line across the page after you balance your account.
The next deposit becomes the new balance and checks are written only on that balance.
If there is a balance in the account at the end of the month, that too gets a line drawn under it to signify that you are beginning a new cycle and will write checks only on the next deposit.
Each month leaves a little more in reserve; it might be only 89 cents, or it might be $12.89.
This amount becomes hidden and is seen only when the monthly bank statement arrives. Check your statement balance against your cycle balance and the difference is found money in your account.
It will add up to a considerable sum if untouched.
It will also help prevent you from overdrawing, which can be very costly.
Found money also includes the coupons you clip from newspapers and use as cash at the supermarket.
Get them organized and use them. Some stores will double the face value of the coupon up to a certain amount, so if you happen to find the item on sale and use a coupon to purchase it, you may get the item free.
It’s a good idea to get your family around the table and talk about cutting expenses.
Each family member will be affected differently by financial downsizing.
Younger children won’t understand, so it’s best to explain to them in simple terms to prevent any anxieties.
Older children may act reluctant as they are worried about what their peers will say.
Ask their advice along the way and make suggestions for their help like taking on a part-time job after school.
This could free up some allowance money.
Most older children want to take responsibility for their own spending, so you may inform them that the money they earn should be used wisely such as paying for their school lunches, their clothes and activities.
They will appreciate being treated as an adult in this matter.
Establish some goals
As you list your expenses on the worksheet, set up a column with a date you expect to pay off each debt.
You should have short-term and long-term goals.
Short-term goals could be paying off doctor bills, credit cards, and loans.
Long-term could be paying off the automobile and the mortgage.
Your short-term goals tell you which creditors will be paid off quickly.
A good way to establish priorities among your creditors is to use the balance due each one as your guide.
Make the smallest bill your main priority, and the largest bill your last priority. By this I mean to pay off the smallest debt first so that once it is paid off in its entirety you can apply the amount you would normally pay to it to the next priority on your list.
If your worksheet shows that you are spending more than you are receiving in income and there are a lot of creditors bothering you, don’t be alarmed.
Simply pick up the telephone and call those creditors and explain that you are working out a financial plan and will be making regular payments until each bill is paid in full.
Creditors are very easy to work with if you let them know that you are making an effort to pay them. [We have not found METABANK to be customer friendly. They lied to us as consumers and keep us from accessing our own cash money. It was not our intent to give METABANK an interest free loan, but they took it anyway!!!]
Take, for example, doctor bills; if you talk to the bookkeeper or the person responsible for sending out the statements each month that you can afford only $10 a month on a $700 bill, it usually will be accepted.
• By law you cannot be taken to court if you are making an honest effort to pay the account, and make regular payments.
• Once you get some of the bills paid off you can increase your monthly payment to the doctor from $10 to $20, $40, or more.
Keep the worksheet where you can refer to it often.
[This puts you in control of your own cash money and your own life so you can enjoy your life more. And you do want to be in full control of all of your assets so you can live the life you really want to live.]
Keep a copy of it wherever you sit to pay the bills.
As you pay off a creditor in full, mark it on your worksheet.
Now apply the amount you were paying to that creditor to the next priority on your worksheet.
Just because you have a set amount due each month on a particular bill does not limit the amount you can pay on it.
Once one bill is paid off in full, you will have that extra monthly cash to apply on other bills.
Apply all of it to one bill to pay that debt faster; do not spread it around on all the bills.
When the second debt is paid off, you now apply the combined amount of the previous two bills to the third bill, plus the normal payment to eliminate it quickly.
If you have a date marked on the worksheet for paying off each creditor, you may find as you progress that you can beat those deadlines as you apply the additional cash to each one of them.
You should have a place where you can work undisturbed while figuring and paying bills each month.
If you have a desk with a drawer that can be used for the purpose, very good, but if you only have the dining room table then get a cardboard box to set up a file system for maintaining records of each bill you pay, for saving pay check stubs, bank statements, income tax records.
While you struggle to pay off your debt and to live with less, consider ways to eliminate spending so you can live within your means.
[Living within your means will give you peace of mind and actually a far better quality of life than commercials would have you believe. It isn’t things that bring us happiness!!!!]
If you are accustomed to buying yourself and your children soft drinks every time you go to town, and each drink is in the neighborhood of a dollar, you can save those dollars by waiting until you get home and serving powdered drink mixes or canned juice.
Buy packages of generic soft drinks and serve them chilled at home or make iced tea using loose tea leaves.
[Years ago we learned that “keeping up with the Joneses simply doesn’t work to make us genuinely happier.
“Keeping up with the Joneses” is another form of competitiveness. This kind of competitiveness is self-destructive.]
- I take along a large thermos of lemonade when we take a trip to town.
- Often I sit with the children in the car at a shopping mall parking lot and eat sandwiches and cookies.
- Stopping for a hamburger is not on the agenda, and if we do stop for hamburgers at McDonalds it is for a special treat such as a birthday celebration.
- Consider taking along an ice chest packed with your meal, which will double as a container to carry home your perishable purchases which includes not only groceries, but animal vaccines that lose potency if not kept cool.
- Freeze bottles of water to keep it cold, or recycle those ice packs that are packed with vaccines when you order by mail.
- Trips to the city are still all day adventures walking the malls and looking into store windows (window shopping is free).
Special accounts
Who ever said a person should have only one checking or savings account?
If you are like me, this does not manage your money efficiently enough to have a sum set aside for land taxes, auto insurance, fill the propane tank, eye glasses, or school clothes.
We always mean to set money aside, but somehow it gets spent, and when the time comes to pay for those expected needs, we just don’t have the money unless we struggle and juggle the budget. What to do? Open a special account.
Special accounts can be either checking or savings. Locate an account that is free.
That means free checks with no monthly service charge, or a savings account that does not charge a penalty for withdrawal or low balance.
- Some banks even pay interest on checking accounts these days, so shop around and ask questions.
- Make a few calls; you don’t have to open the special account at your present bank.
[This is what we want and expect from banks: a way to help us save. METABANK has operated like a loan shark, setting up all their own rules and then changing them without notice, but always to their own financial advantage. We are asking that banks act like real banks and not for collections agency banks like METABANK that are really nothing more than loan sharks, predatory loan sharks at best!!!]
Make regular deposits into this account,
and never, never draw money out or write a check against the account
unless it is for that special need.
For example, suppose your land tax is $400 a year and you have opened the account to save for that need.
Divide that amount by 12 months and you get $33.33. If you deposit $34 monthly into the special account, you never have to worry about where the money is coming from to pay your land tax.
You may not have an extra $34 while trying to pay off your other debts.
What do you do in that case?
Discover some source of income that can be regularly deposited into the special account.
◦ Deposit the egg money, the income tax return, money made from baby-sitting,
◦ your saved change, money from the sale of livestock, hay, etc.
◦ Raise something special like rabbits.
If the income is directed toward the special account, you will find that $400 a year is easy to save, and you may even end up with closer to $600,so that you can purchase something special or needful like a set of tires for the truck.
Do not underestimate a special account.
It is the modern version of Grandma’s sugar bowl savings, but less easily dipped into or spent unwisely since it requires a banking transaction.
The final leap.
You’ve made it; you’ve finally paid off all your debts and now have freed up your cash.
Where do you go from here. It’s time to look at the long-term goals.
Mortgages can be paid off rapidly if you pay an additional $100 or $200 a month on the principle.
Be sure to note on your payment that it is to be credited toward the principle, or it may go into your escrow account.
When we began making large principle payments we learned that an additional $100 a month would shave off 120 months from the payoff date, and save us $21,436 in interest.
It was at this point that we made the decision not to pay off our mortgaged house, but to sell it and pay cash for a smaller one with the equity.
Whatever you do, don’t get trapped into debt again.
We got out from under those bills and you can too.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/campbell67.html
Great resource!!! Thanks for sharing with other consumers!
Posted by mrnd5 on February 6, 2013
https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/whatever-you-do-dont-get-trapped-into-debt-again-we-got-out-from-under-those-bills-and-you-can-too/
Making a budget, Paying using only cash… Easier and safest approach at this time
Budgeting simplified to allow us to save and to spend using cash only!!!
10 Ways to Simplify Your Budget
Every Tuesday is Finance & Family Day at Zen Habits.
I’m always looking for ways to simplify my finances (I’m weird like that, I know), and recently I’ve been scrutinizing my already-simple budget to make it even simpler.
I thought it would be helpful to share some of the ways to make your budget as simple as possible.
The goal is to
- reduce headaches,
- eliminate the need for complicated tracking schemes,
- and reduce the time you spend on your budget and finances to about 15-20 minutes per week.
I can’t claim these ideas are original, or that I haven’t discussed them in various places before, but in my experience, they work. They’re simple and powerful.
Let’s first look at setting up a budget.
If you haven’t done it yet, it’s probably because budgets seem intimidating to you, or they are too much hassle to set up and maintain.
Those are both valid points — which is why you should follow this simplified plan if these things apply to you. Now, there’s plenty of fancy software out there for setting up budgets, but I don’t think they’re necessary. A simple spreadsheet will do — and if you can create a SUM formula to add up the total of a column of numbers, you have all the spreadsheet knowledge necessary.
1. Create a simple spreadsheet for your budget, if you haven’t already, and start by listing your income and your monthly expenses. Estimate, in round numbers, how much you spend on each expense every month. You can adjust later, but it’s better to err on the side of too high a number, rather than putting a low number and breaking your budget.
Now let’s look at ways to create a simple budget:
2. 60 Percent Solution. There are many ways to structure your budget, but the simplest I’ve found is the 60% solution. Basically, this budget asks you to fit your regular monthly expenses within 60% of your gross income, so that you have room for savings (long-term and short-term), retirement and spending money (“fun money”). These are the things that most often break a budget, because most people don’t budget for them.
Now, your percentage will vary, but the percentages given here are just rough guidelines:Fewer categories.
A lot of budget software asks you to fill in a million categories and subcategories. Those can be useful if you want to track all that stuff, but I don’t. I recommend simplifying: just use broad categories like food and gas and spending and utilities. Use what works.
- 60 percent: Monthly expenses — such as housing, food, utilities, insurance, Internet, transportation. This is the part most commonly thought of as a budget.
- 10 percent: Retirement — and if you’re doing it right, this is being automatically deducted from your paycheck for a 401(k) investment.
- 10 percent: Long-term savings or debt reduction. It’s best to invest this in something such as stocks or an index fund, and this can serve as your emergency fund. But if you are in debt (not including a home mortgage), I would advise that you use this portion of the budget to pay off your debts, and even draw some from the other categories such as retirement to increase this to about 20 percent for now. Once your debts are paid off, you can switch this to long-term savings. You still need to have an emergency fund, but while you’re in debt-reduction mode you can either create a small, temporary emergency fund out of the money from this category or the next.
- 10 percent: Short-term savings — this is for periodic expenses, such as auto maintenance or repairs, medical expenses (not including insurance premiums), appliances, home maintenance, birthday and Christmas gifts. For this savings account, be sure to spend the money when you need it — that’s what it’s for. When these expenses come up, you will have the money for them, instead of trying to pull them from other budget categories.
- 10 percent: Fun money — you can spend this on eating out, movies, comic books — whatever you want. Guilt free.
3. Pay bills online. As much as possible, pay your bills online. These would be most of the bills in the first category above — utilities, rent or mortgage, cell phone, Internet, etc. If you can’t pay electronically, have your bank send out a check to the vendor. Make these payments automatic, so you don’t need to worry about them.
This will draw the usual outraged or preachy reaction from those who really love their credit cards, but I don’t care.
I don’t like credit cards. Call me old fashioned.
They charge high interest and they’re potentially dangerous (if you run up a high bill and an expense comes up that you need to pay for which means you can’t pay your credit card bill on time, you now are stuck with high-interest credit card debt).
Use a debit card if you need to.
[NO, NO, NO!!!!!
……We cannot advise using a debit card either because this amounts to being an interest free loan to a bank and often the consumer is charged activation fees for these cards on top of giving out an inbterest free loan…
…This is the biggest gimmick to come about in centuries… Clever marketing makes the debit card sound like a way to keep yourself from over spending, but the way that METABANK operates internally means that customers are kept from being able to access their own money when they really need it. Some have complained that they had to get a loan to even be able to pay routine monthly bills. METABANK is operating a fraud on their customers. They lied to me about why they felt they should keep me from accessing my own cash money…. METABANK made themselves into the “PREPAID CARD POLICING SYSTEM.” However, it is METABANK who is doing a major scam…..
…All that we can do is to warn others not to use any kind of METABANK PRODUCT]
10. Pay all bills at the same time. It often just takes a simple call to get a vendor or creditor to change the due date on your bills. If you can get all your bills to be due on, let’s say, the 10th of the month, you can do all your bill paying at once. For some people, this will mean they will need to do a bit of scrimping to get ahead enough so that they can afford to make all their month’s payments at the beginning of the month, but it’s worth it. You can pay all your bills and be done with it.
[Because the product that METABANK, a PREPAID CARD, didn’t work at all from a consumer’s perspective for us and many others who complain regularly about how they have been kept from being able to access their own money once they gave METABANK cash money to place on a prepaid card, we feel compelled to alert other consumers that the METABANK PREPAID CARD isn’t good for customers/consumers.]
Posted by mrnd5 on February 5, 2013
https://mrnd5.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/making-a-budget-paying-using-only-cash-easier-and-safest-approach-at-this-time/
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Categories
- $50 "lack of documentation fee" for students who fail to submit certain paperwork.
- " A Five-Step Guide To Real Financial Reform"
- 'Not cheaper for the students'
- 1
- Access Sought To Your Company's Customer List
- Accountability
- Advocate for your needs and concerns as a consumer
- agreements with 520 campuses that enroll more than 4.3 million students
- America doesn't even know how we start wars
- and begin talking about change in the actions of Meta Bank and banks like it. Ask for Bank Reforms to Protect Consumers!!! Please focus your energy on this. We need all of your help we can get.
- Annual Income of META BANK's CEOs
- Apex Prepaid Cards = Meta Bank
- Areas of expertise
- AVIS uses bank cards processed by METABANK
- Avoid This Service
- Bank Card Tax Refunds are an interest free loan to a bank
- Bank Card Tax Refunds Fails Consumers
- Bank Fees for Prepaid Cards
- Bank Locally- Pay with Cash- Open a Savings Account -Don't Use Prepaid Debit Cards
- Bank Publicity that is simply "Garbage Talk"
- Bank Reform and Proper Regulations are Needed
- Bank Reform needed
- Bank Reformer
- BANK REFORMS NEEDED TO BE CAREFULLY REGULATED
- Bank Reforms that actually protect consumers are still needed – Elizabeth Warren is needed
- Bank Regulations must be enforced
- Bank regulators shut down MetaBank payday loans
- Bank Regulatory Reforms are Needed
- Bank Scams and how to deal with them
- Bank Scams go international
- Bank Tellers at MetaBank earn wages on the average that are below the poverty level
- banking in Storm Lake IOWA
- Banking in the USA in 2013
- BankMeta lies to keep customers from their own money
- bankmeta.com
- Banks are creating economic servitude in the USA
- Banks Designed To Keep Consumers in Debt
- Banks have created all the rules for PREPAID CARDS
- Banks Lying to Consumers To Trick Them into taking on Debt
- Banks regrouping
- Barnes and Noble used METABANK Financial Solutions and went out of business
- Be sure to vote and then to follow up asking elected officials to serve you as a consumer
- being manipulated
- Best Western uses bank cards processed by METABANK
- Best Western uses METABANK cards
- Big Corporations and Banks run the world
- Blackhawk & METABANK to be avoided
- business professionals
- but horrible in practice: Bank Reform and Bank Regulation to protect consumers are needed
- but it is still Meta Bank's same service and poor quality
- capital allocations
- CFE Fund
- Chief Executive Office using legalize verbiage denies any responsibility
- Chief Executive Officer
- Children Living in Poverty in the USA startlingly high
- Colleges and banks rake in millions from the fees
- Complaints Against Meta Bank
- conservative banking
- Consumer Abuse by PayPower
- Consumer Advocate
- Consumer Alert
- Consumer Rights Advocacy
- Consumer Rights- consumers have no or few protections from predatory banking practices
- Consumers act to protect themselves and others from further bank fraud and customer abuses
- Consumers align to protect yourselves
- Consumers are Vulnerable: Help each other
- Consumers being forced to use plastic
- Consumers Demand Bank Reforms That Serve Their Real Needs
- Consumers Join Forces to Protect Each Other from Bank Scams and Frauds
- Consumers must speak out
- Consumers Need To Save Money And Stay Out of Debt
- Consumers Start Talking and Learning Real Facts About Banking
- Consumers suffer at the hands of METABANK
- Corporate Partner to be excluded from the process that Meta Bank puts in place
- Corrupt Practices found within METABANK
- Creating Easy Preys Doesn't Make METABANK's Practices Moral
- Customer Complaints Abound Regarding how METABANK treats them.
- Customer Loyalty
- Customer Loyalty Program
- customer service
- Customer Service at METABANK.com
- Customer Service isn't listed as being one of META FINANCIAL GROUP INC areas of interest or studied skills
- customer service of METABANK
- Customer's being scammed by Money Network
- Customers of METABANK continue to complain about how they have been mistreated by METABANK
- customers' naivete
- Customers' Scammed Repeatedly By METABANK
- Cutting-edge technology
- David and Goliath -the consumer and METABANK's prepaid debit cards
- debit card fraud is always a possibility
- Disabled Veteran abused by METABANK
- Do not give up control of your own money by using a prepaid card
- Does METABANK believe their customer base are unworthy?
- Dollar General Pre-paid Card is Meta Bank
- Dominoes Pizza uses bank cards processed by METABANK
- Dominos Pizza uses META BANK Cards
- Don't Invest in META BANK
- Don't pay by credit card
- Don't pay using a debit card
- don't take on more debt to pay off the first debt
- Don't use PREPAID BANK CARDS of any kind
- Economic Servitude needs to be studied and abolished in the USA
- Election reforms are needed in the USA
- electronic banking
- End Overdraft Fees
- even clear-cut cases of fraud where victims are protected from liability by consumer protection laws can cause significant hardship
- fast paced
- fast paced banking systems
- fees related to gift cards
- fees required to talk by phone to NETSPEND
- Fight Corruption
- Financial Advice
- Financial Industry
- Financial Regulatory Reforms Needed
- future oriented
- garbage talk with big words
- Get Debit dot com is Meta Bank
- Getting by in a tough economy
- getting out of debt
- gift card payment systems
- Gift Cards are an interest free loan to an unknown bank
- Gift Cards May be Suspended After Purchase and without notice
- Green Dot is Meta Bank and Green Dot already has many complaints from customers
- Helpful Information
- herd behavior
- Higher One has agreements with 520 campuses that enroll more than 4.3 million students
- Holiday Gift Cards: have hidden fees
- How did the assassins pay for their Meta Bank/Payoneer Pre-Paid Cards? Where else were these cards used?
- How to make a budget and to save money
- http://wwwbankmetacom/Contact
- Human Rights
- If in debt
- INC is a scam
- Indifferent Americans use this as a defense mechanism but it is just shortsightedness since they can and will be scammed by Meta Bank too – stop being so arrogant and proud – it just makes you look st
- information systems
- innovative banking practices
- Integrity
- Internal Audit Committee at Meta Bank
- Internal Audits not able to cope with problems related to prepaid bank cards
- Is Lisa being set up by Meta Bank to take the next fall for their actions? Watch for the next developments.
- J. Tyler Haahr
- J. Tyler Haahr only spouts empty legal jargon and empty wording with no real meaning other than to push the blame off onto others
- Jackson-Hewitt and METABANK are partners
- Jackson-Hewitt tax preparation services to be avoided
- Just Curious About Meta Bank's Ad Placement
- Just try to save
- Macy's uses bank cards provided by and processed by METABANK
- Macy's uses METABANK cards
- marketing is basically Meta Bank's major strength just behind collections
- Meta Bank
- Meta Bank and Banks like it are the source of the bad economy – stop talking about any politician at any point in history
- META BANK bilks their customer base
- Meta Bank charges customers for spending their own money
- META BANK continues same scam into end of 2012
- Meta Bank denied one man his right to a fair and impartial trial. What kind of a world citizen is Meta Bank? We are tired of fighting the wars that Meta Bank causes.
- META BANK doesn’t serve the general public
- Meta Bank has a Prepaid Card to meet your specific needs
- Meta Bank is nothing but a publicity scam
- Meta Bank never accepts responsibility
- Meta Bank never made any promises to their customers in their legal documents
- Meta Bank Offshore Banking Options – purpose?
- Meta Bank operates using many different names
- META BANK same poor service as always
- Meta Bank Scams Americans
- Meta Bank sells VISA and Mastercard Pre-Paid Cards
- Meta Bank uses empty verbiage
- META BANK: Creating all the rules in their own favor
- META FINANCIAL GROUP
- META FINANCIAL GROUP INC
- META FINANCIAL GROUP INC & PREPAID CARDS FAIL CONSUMERS
- META FINANCIAL GROUP INC continues to scam customers through the end of 2012
- META FINANCIAL GROUP INC fails to address customers' real needs
- META FINANCIAL GROUP INC is by design created to make money for their CEOs
- META FINANCIAL GROUP INC pushes blame off onto their customers for their own design issues and internal operating problems
- METABANK
- METABANK =TURBOTAX and both are scams
- METABANK as the alpha baboon in our society
- METABANK average employees earn wages below the poverty level
- METABANK causes the late fees for customers
- METABANK CEOs create and require all of the rules
- METABANK CEOs make huge annual incomes
- METABANK customers are still being scammed
- METABANK customers are still complaining about the abuse they have received from METABANK
- METABANK Customers complain about METABANK's mistreatment
- METABANK designed the prepaid bank cards
- METABANK donates large amounts of money to re-elect Steve King
- METABANK fails to hear and to respond appropriately to customer's real needs
- METABANK is a collections agency
- METABANK is a collections agency and not a bank
- METABANK is a piece of crap
- MetaBank is corrupt
- METABANK issues the Target Red Card
- METABANK lies to their own customers
- METABANK operates using many different names
- METABANK practices are dragging the economy down
- METABANK PREPAID CARD
- METABANK uses both Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes
- METABANK uses false awards- false testimonials
- METABANK uses shills- stooges to market their product
- METABANK uses the rules for their own gain
- METABANK's partner company provides METABANK with access to their customer base
- METABANK's practices are narcissitic
- METABANK's PREPAID CARD
- METABANK's publicity is a lie and filled with false promises
- METABANK's publicity says that their prepaid card will meet your specific needs but in reality they are the exact same card just using different publicitty
- metabank.com
- Michelle Singletary
- Michelle Singletary gives good advice to consumers
- Money and Spending Wisely
- Money Mules
- Money mules get METABANK PREPAID CARDS to work for them
- Money Network is META BANK
- More behind META BANK's scam than we may have previously realized
- narcissism in US banking
- Narcissism of Storm Lake IOWA
- Narcissistic practices found to be within METABANK's operation
- NBPCA and consumers
- NBPCA is a scam on the American public
- NETSPEND is METABANK
- Netspend is not easier
- NETSPEND scams consumer
- Netspend/Meta Bank makes life miserable
- Nothing and no one has yet been able to put a stop to META BANK's scam
- Omaha Steaks uses bank cards provided by and processed by METABANK
- Omaha Steaks uses METABANK cards
- Ordinary customers can't get the METABANK PREPAID CARD TO SERVE THEIR NEEDS
- OTS
- outrageous banking practices
- outrageous practices related to Prepaid Cards
- Outrageous practices within MetaBank
- Overstock uses METABANK cards
- Overstock.com uses bank cards provided by and processed by METABANK
- Partner company – Jackson/Hewitt uses METABANK's PREPAID BANK CARD – avoid this scam
- payment cards that carry hefty costs
- Payment Solutions with Serious Problems
- Payment Systems
- Payoneer uses top- of – the line secure technology and stringent regulations for customer authentication and identity verification
- PayPower Scam
- PayPower Visa by META BANK
- personal finance
- PetMeds uses cards processed by METABANK
- PetMeds uses METABANK Products
- Please help to stop the immoral banking practices of META BANK
- Pre-paid Bank Cards don't work
- Pre-paid Bank Cards don't work right
- Predatory Practices of BankMeta.com
- PREPAID BANK CARD FRAUDULENT PRACTICES
- PrePaid Bank Cards and Consumers
- PrePaid Bank Cards bad for consumers
- PREPAID CARDS are not adequately regulated
- PREPAID CARDS are not consumer friendly
- PREPAID CARDS promoted by METABANK
- PREPAID DEBIT CARDS
- Prepaid Gift Card
- PrePaid Name Brand Bank Card Association a non-profit is a scam
- progressive
- Protecting Your Customer Base
- Publicity or Factual
- Put yourself in charge of your own finances
- Real Customer Service Builds a Genuine Customer Base
- rebate cards
- Respect Consumers
- Risk Retention Crisis and the consumer
- Rules Designed BY METABANK for the benefit of METABANK
- saving
- Saving Money
- Saving Plans
- Say NO to debt- Say NO to METABANK PREPAID BANK CARDS
- Scams by banks like METABANK
- seek revenue growth for themselves not you the customer
- self-centered
- self-motivated
- self-serving
- shift the cost of handing out financial aid money from universities
- Sports Authority uses bankcards provided by and processed by METABANK
- Stay Out of Debt
- Stay out of debt- don't get loans to pay off loans
- Staying Competitive at What Expense
- Steve King
- Steve King (R-IA) received large campaign donation from James S. Haahr of Meta Bank
- Stop Meta Bank
- Stop Money Laundering
- Storm Lake IOWA
- Success shouldn't be about profits – People mattter
- Suspicious Activity is within Meta Bank's internal practices and policies
- sustainable banking
- Suze Orman sees the positive side in Debit Cards
- system integrity
- Tag Cards an unnecessary evil for consumers
- Take control of your own lives and finances
- Take Control of Your Own Lives and Your Own Finances
- Target Red Card is managed by METABANK
- Target uses cards provided by and processed by METABANK
- TD BANK is not a local bank
- TD Bank now services Target's Red Card
- Technology
- Terrorism within the USA
- The Art and Skill of Remaining Debt-Free
- The cards and accounts are marketed aggressively using college letterhead and websites carrying the endorsement of colleges.
- The U.S. Department of Education called the charging of such fees "unallowable" in guidance to financial aid officers issued last month.
- Thief steals gift cards and is able to use them
- This is not a sustainable pattern for the US Economy.
- Thrift Bank – the concept is a scam
- through secretive deals and sometimes in apparent violation of federal law
- to fee-paying students
- travel card
- Tricked by METABANK's publicity
- Truth
- trying to manage regulatory regulations – still don't understand the problems they have caused
- Two problems found in METABANK's "No Credit Check" Cards
- unbanked
- upside card is a METABANK product with problems
- US Government needs to seize Meta Bank's assets
- Usury
- We are all vulnerable to predatory practices of banks like METABANK
- Western Union and MetaBank have joined forces
- What were Meta Bank's supervisors and internal auditors doing? Did they even exist? Why doesn't Meta Bank's Higher Ups ever know anything and have to push the blame around all the time?
- Where There Is Smoke There Is Fire
- Why does METABANK lie to their own customers?
- Why Lisa Binder?? Why?
- Xoom and Meta Bank are one in the same
- You may be dealing with Meta Bank under a different name
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