Oops! How Does One Undo Payment Mistakes?
I speak to users of payment apps about their experience, and they assure me they are very careful and are confident they are always paying the right person the correct amount. While I don’t use Venmo myself (yet), I have watched the demos and watched my kids use it. I like the functionality, and I understand that 99.9% of the time, you are paying funds to or requesting funds from one of your contacts, which explains users’ confidence. (For the life of me I don’t understand why...
Read the Fine Print: Overdraft Protection
What do financial institutions like to hide in the fine print? If they keep "hiding the ball" there we better teach our students to "read the fine print!"
Here are a few leading banks and the "footnotes" (small print and bottom of page) that you can find on their Overdraft Protection pages:
Bank #1 [click to go to source]:
Bank #2 [click to go to source]
Questions:
Click on one of the bank links above and analyze the overdraft services provided by the bank. Identify pros/cons of each of...
FinCap Friday: Tappity-Tap!
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Nov 29, 2018
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FinCap Fridays, Current Events, Credit Cards, Payment Types, Debit Cards
More and more people opt into using mobile payments because of the speed and ease of transacting, but now Chase and VISA are jumping on the opportunity to offer a faster and easier way to make payments! In this week's segment, we take a closer look at contactless payments, also known as "tap to pay." Click the image below for the slides.
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Be sure to check out more FinCap Fridays here. ...
Chart of the Week: Digital Wallets
By Tim Ranzetta
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Nov 28, 2018
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Chart of the Week, Payment Types, Current Events, Debit Cards, Credit Cards
This chart comes courtesy of Wall Street Journal (sub. required):
Questions:
In your own words, what's a digital wallet? Here's a description from Investopedia.
Which companies listed in the chart are you familiar with? Would you trust them to store your debit/credit card information?
Digital wallets now comprise about 1% of U.S. card transactions. What do you think that percentage will be in five years?
What do you think is the appeal of a digital wallet to consumers? to...
Question of the Day: How many payment transactions does a consumer make in a typical month?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Nov 26, 2018
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Payment Types, Question of the Day, Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Checking Accounts
Answer: 70
Questions:
How many payment transactions do you make in a typical month?
What are the various ways that you pay for things? List them from most to least popular.
How do you keep track of your payment transactions?
How do you think the way you pay for things might change as you get older?
Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.
Behind the numbers (from CBInsights):...
Schools in the News: Custom High School Debit Cards, Reality Fairs and Live Personal Finance Shows
Credit union issues school debit cards (Albany Democrat-Herald)
“Central Willamette Credit Union… has issued special debit cards for West Albany, South Albany and Lebanon high schools, each bearing their name and logo. Anytime someone swipes the debit card, the credit union makes a 3-cent donation back to the specific school…. The company has long awarded mini-grants to teachers for classroom projects. Central Willamette employees also spend hundreds of hours...
Question of the Day: Where do consumers use their debit cards most? a) Fast-food dining b) Gas station c) Supermarket
Answer: Supermarket, with almost 50% of consumers choosing to use their debit card.
From Visual Capitalist:
Questions:
Why do you think people choose debit over credit when it comes to shopping at supermarkets?
How do you decide whether to use cash or your debit card when buying something?
Why do you think credit cards are most popular at department stores?
Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can...
What's New With......Checking?
Cash or No Cash?
Have you noticed your favorite businesses going cashless? How much cash do you carry? Read how David Gelles of the New York Times decided to give the cashless lifestyle a try.
If we are moving to go cashless, then this news about cardless ATMs may have a limited lifespan.
Checking Account Fees and Features
You are not imagining it: checking account fees are on the rise.
You may have to search harder, but free checking accounts still exist.
As fintech evolves...
What I'm Reading This Weekend (2/17-2/18)
What happens when tight labor markets meet tax cuts meets increased government spending? The I-word returns as a key concern of central bankers. After a decade of slumbering 1-2% annual inflation figures, expectations reset for what's ahead as well (which might explain the recent stock market drop):
January CPI data was released Friday. Consumer prices rose more than anticipated in January.
The NYT has an informative article on How Inflation Works.
USA Today tries to help us...
Question of the Day: Is there a fee if you don't have enough money in your bank account to cover a debit card transaction?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Jan 08, 2018
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Checking Accounts, Current Events, Research, Question of the Day, Debit Cards
Answer: It depends.
If you have overdraft protection on your account, the average fee is $35
If you do not have overdraft protection, there is no fee but you will not be able to complete the transaction.
Questions:
Do you have/would you choose to have overdraft protection for your bank account? Explain.
What are strategies that you can utilize to avoid spending more than you have in your bank account?
Would you be ok if your debit card transaction was turned down at a store? ...
Credit Card, Debit Card or Checks: What Is Most Prevalent Form of Payment By Americans?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Jan 02, 2018
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Credit Cards, Current Events, Question of the Day, Debit Cards, Checking Accounts
Answer (from Federal Reserve 2017 Payments Study): Debit cards
Number of transactions in 2016:
Debit cards: 73.8 billion
Credit cards: 37.3 billion
Checks: 17.2 billion
Interestingly the fastest growing area in terms of transactions was with credit cards:
Credit card payments registered the highest growth rate by number (10.2 percent) among the core payment types from 2015 to 2016, up from a growth rate of 8.1 percent from 2012 to 2015. Debit card payments registered the second highest...
Digging Deeper: Is Gen Z Doomed to Fail at Budgeting?
By Beth Tallman
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Dec 18, 2017
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Budgeting, Debit Cards, Credit Cards, Purchase Decisions, Tips for Teachers, Article, Current Events
The students in our classrooms today can make it through life without ever touching cash. Heck, they don’t even have to take a debit or credit card out of their pockets….a few taps on the phone that is always in their hand and they can pay for things using ApplePay or the Android equivalent, or pay back their friends using an PayPal or Venmo. A student of mine from China said this is how his generation pays for everything back home. Bottom line: it is just...
Question of the Day: How many monthly withdrawals can you make (without penalty) from a savings or money market account?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Nov 09, 2017
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Question of the Day, Savings, Checking Accounts, Debit Cards, Policy
Answer: 6
Hat tip to Jessica and her PLC group, Diane Mondoro, Steve Penley, Vicky Livesay, and Kayla Bousum for generating this question. (Sign up for the next round of our PLCs here)
On to the details:
From NerdWallet:
Regulation D, also known as Reg D, is a Federal Reserve Board rule that puts a limit of six transactions per month on certain transfers and withdrawals from your savings or money market account. If you go over the limit, the bank or credit union can charge you a fee, close...
Common Cents: Avoid Withdrawing Money From Out-of-Network ATMs
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Oct 13, 2017
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Article, Personal Finance, Current Events, Checking Accounts, Debit Cards
The creation of the ATM saved quite a lot time for bank customers, as they no longer had to wait in line at bank branches to withdraw their money. Could escalating out-of-network ATM fees lead to the decline of withdrawing cash in the near future? I predict that the recent trend of peer-to-peer payment could lead to the eventual—and most unfortunate—downfall of ATMs starting in large metropolitan areas. In these markets, more and more people are opting out of using cash and instead...
Another Step Towards A Cashless Society...
VISA providing incentives to small business owners to NOT accept cash. From Denver Post:
For years, mom-and-pop shops and food trucks alike have shuddered at the expense of credit card transactions. It’s not uncommon, for example, for small businesses to have minimum dollar amounts for card purchases. Some still don’t accept them at all or gently inform customers they prefer cash.
Credit-card behemoth Visa launched a campaign to change that Wednesday. The campaign to go cashless — or the...
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