>>Have you ever handed your credit card to a waiter at a restaurant and had them walk out of sight? That is definitely more dangerous than on-line banking. >> Boy, that brings back a bad memory! Our card # was stolen by a waiter at one of our favorite restaurants once. Fortunately our liability was zero, but it just goes to show, you never know when you hand your card over, who's going to get that info for criminal use. Nowadays, you don't even have to hand your card over. One night we were watching an episode of "NCIS" which started with a teenager stealing credit card numbers with an electronic gadget that pulls the RFID info from your card while it's in your wallet or purse. Easy as pie and it actually exists. They just need to get close to you, which is as simple as walking down a crowded sidewalk and brushing past you in the opposite direction. First time in 38 yrs I've been able to get DH to change his wallet voluntarily. Usually he keeps it until it's literally falling apart. After he saw this episode, I bought him an RFID-blocking wallet from amazon.com and he changed over immediately! It annoys me very much they don't make different styles for women's wallets, BTW.

greg_h: That's correct. They look like a credit card, with the Mastercard or Visa logo on the lower right corner. When using at an ATM, you MUST use a PIN#. When using at a retailer, generally you can choose between a signature transaction or a PIN# transaction. In the US, there was a huge dispute over this. Fees to the retailer are much higher for signature transactions, which are processed through the Mastercard/Visa network, than for PIN# transactions, which are processed by smaller, regional systems. At Walmart, for example, the payment pad automatically prompted you for the PIN# if you swiped a debit card. It did not give you the option to do a signature transaction. In the examples I have seen cited, service fees to the retailer on a $100 transaction are about $3 for a signature transaction and 35 cents for a PIN# transaction. Personally, I have ceased using my debit card, except at ATM's. If the number is boosted, your account could be cleaned out before you realize it. Although you would likely receive reimbursement under fraud protection, you are still without the money until then. With a credit card, fraud still creates a hassle, but at least your bank account is not cleaned out.

I used to work in a bank - every single time I go in something goes wrong - I feel I should be paid a training fee. Whenever I find a bank employee who is good he/she is transferred. I get paper everything. What the employees fail to recognize is that other customers in line can hear the lunacy and become concerned about their own funds. You should have heard me trying to explain that $650 divided by 50 does not equal 7. Finally after the 4th attempt I started telling her that 2 times 50 = 100 and so on. But that if she wanted to sell me $650 for the price of $350, by all means. I also have had the same problem with payments on accounts. Fees are also about to go up - and since all tellers were missing and I saw a single white sheet at the end of the counter, I decided to go and get it to read it - our type of account does not carry fees if we keep a certain balance but it also comes with a U.S. account - I get a paper statement of course - and it was very iffy if we would be charged $2 a month for the paper service to continue. None of the employees knew and had to phone and ask - that took 20 minutes and the caller made the mistake of looking at his watch in frustration. I pointed out that the supervisors at least should have known the answers before putting out the increase sheet - and that one sheet was not enough. I was told in a very nasty tone that they were being "compliant". Maybe, but not in the interests of the client. Yet you trip over notices for everything else. But the people behind me in line were grateful that I had pointed out the new fee schedule - as was the teller who originally helped me and had to ask her boss if the fee applied to us. We did not receive anything in the mail - other than the increase in annual cost of our medium safety deposit box - to $80 a year - started off at $35. We get a free small one with our bank account but it won't hold our wills etc. - the medium is pretty small on its own. So far I have shown staff how to fill in loan documents, pay taxes, bills etc. and that us just the beginning. I am also something of an expert on the credit card with travel rewards. I hope you get your money back and are not charged interest - better check that.

>patser-I worked for 30 years in the investment industry up until this past April. For the last 5 of those years I worked overseeing the riskiness of my bank's securities trading groups, specifically the bond trading groups (which includes mortgage backed securities trading). We oversaw trading in the far East, Europe, and North America. In the early part of my career, I worked in the treasury group of a major US bank which had financial problems and was ultimately absorbed into/bought by another major US bank. My group was the area that was in daily, direct contact with the US regulators and I was involved in way too many conversations about a bank that was going down. I ultimately lost that job due to a later and different merger 10 years after the original financial problems. I consider myself to be a well informed pretty recent ex-banker. "Involved in way too many conversations about a bank that was going down?" What is that supposed to mean? Now that you are no longer working there, would you care to share what these specific problems were? "I consider myself to be a well informed pretty recent ex-banker." Did you know Fannie and Freddie were going to be taken over by the government over the weekend? Does it matter that their shares have plummeted over 90% in value over the past year? Do you have stock with either of these companies and did you buy or sell any shares within the past 6 months? Do you think the Fannie and Freddie CEOs that were pushed out by the government this weekend should be rewarded with fat pay packages, go on to live in massive homes and become high-paid consultants? Or do you think a jail sentence is in order? >I would have absolutely no hesitancy about putting up to $100,000 into an FDIC insured account at Bank of America or Wachovia. Quite honestly, I think the original post in this chain is very similar to chicken little saying "the sky is falling, the sky is falling". While some financial entities clearly have been negatively affected over the last 18 months, to imply a widespread panic is around the corner is malicious fear mongering - in my opinion. I find it both interesting as well as amusing that you would accuse tricia, a fellow member of the industry, of being a fear monger. She posted information about the FDIC that SHOULD be freely available to the public yet you think this is 'too much' information for the average taxpayer to be able to absorb without 'overreacting' in a way that might protect their life savings. Sharing information with the public about damaging accounting scandals, questionable management, inadequate capital reserves and a crashing residential real estate market, is NOT fear mongering. I think most of the readers at the GardenWeb forums are mature enough to be able to tell the difference. As for 'implying a widespread panic". What is your opinion about the many high-ranking government officials in the 1970s who swore the S&Ls were safe, even as thousands of thrifts were failing all around them? How about those FDIC and Federal Reserve officials in the 1980s who vehemently denied the threat to commercial banks, even as the bank failure rate surged to the highest since the Great Depression? Or the state insurance regulators in the 1990s who swore to the safety of annuities and life insurance policies, even as six million policyholders were being trapped in failed companies? Last but not least, lets not forget the auditing firms like Arthur Andersen, KPMG, and Deloitte and Touche that facilitated or even encouraged accounting distortions and cover-ups and those major Wall Street firms of the early 2000s that consistently affirmed "hold" and "buy" ratings for the shares of hundreds of companies that were going bankrupt. What has changed to correct this? Nothing. The lies continue, no one gets punished and fat cat CEO's continue to prosper at the TAXPAYERS expense. Is it any wonder why investors don't want to play this 'casino game' anymore, or why depositors don't trust their banks to tell them the truth? I think it shows utter contempt for the American people to assume we are too stupid to be able to be told the same things that insiders already know about our crippled economy. I don't know when the reality of this will dawn on the "denialists." But when it does, I'm sure they will be remembered along with some of the 'experts' (below) who thought everything would be just fine 80 years ago. September 1929 "There is no cause to worry. The high tide of prosperity will continue." â" Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury. October 14, 1929 "Secretary Lamont and officials of the Commerce Department today denied rumors that a severe depression in business and industrial activity was impending, which had been based on a mistaken interpretation of a review of industrial and credit conditions issued earlier in the day by the Federal Reserve Board." â" New York Times December 5, 1929 "The Government's business is in sound condition." â" Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury December 28, 1929 "Maintenance of a general high level of business in the United States during December was reviewed today by Robert P. Lamont, Secretary of Commerce, as an indication that American industry had reached a point where a break in New York stock prices does not necessarily mean a national depression." â" Associated Press dispatch. January 13, 1930 "Reports to the Department of Commerce indicate that business is in a satisfactory condition, Secretary Lamont said today." - News item. January 21, 1930 "Definite signs that business and industry have turned the corner from the temporary period of emergency that followed deflation of the speculative market were seen today by President Hoover. The President said the reports to the Cabinet showed the tide of employment had changed in the right direction." - News dispatch from Washington. January 24, 1930 "Trade recovery now complete President told. Business survey conference reports industry has progressed by own power. No Stimulants Needed! Progress in all lines by the early spring forecast." - New York Herald Tribune. March 8, 1930 "President Hoover predicted today that the worst effect of the crash upon unemployment will have been passed during the next sixty days." - Washington Dispatch. May 1, 1930 "While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There is one certainty of the future of a people of the resources, intelligence and character of the people of the United States - that is, prosperity." - President Hoover June 29, 1930 "The worst is over without a doubt." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor. August 29, 1930 "American labor may now look to the future with confidence." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor. September 12, 1930 "We have hit bottom and are on the upswing." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor. October 16, 1930 "Looking to the future I see in the further acceleration of science continuous jobs for our workers. Science will cure unemployment." - Charles M. Schwab. October 20, 1930 "President Hoover today designated Robert W. Lamont, Secretary of Commerce, as chairman of the President's special committee on unemployment." - Washington dispatch. October 21, 1930 "President Hoover has summoned Colonel Arthur Woods to help place 2,500,000 persons back to work this winter." - Washington Dispatch November 1930 "I see no reason why 1931 should not be an extremely good year." - Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., General Motors Co. January 20, 1931 "The country is not in good condition." - Calvin Coolidge. June 9, 1931 "The depression has ended." - Dr. Julius Klein, Assistant Secretary of Commerce.