It’s that time of year again. Love it or hate it, Black Friday (the shopping day after Thanksgiving) is coming around the pike, and retailers are going overboard with special sales to try and lure you in. If you have been holding off getting a piece of electronics or other gift, waiting for deals after Thanksgiving, you are in luck, because major retailers such as Wal Mart, Best Buy and Target have announced some great deals.

In a controversial move, many leading retailers are opening earlier than the traditional 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. time on Friday morning. Many will be opening at midnight, and Wal Mart is going a step further and opening at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. This means that for all the die hards who wait in line to be among the first shoppers making a mad rush into the store to scramble for the very best low priced deals, they will have to now essentially stay up all night. Employees too are having to sacrifice family time, to show up for work in the middle of the night. So, instead of watching a football game with uncles they will have to take a nap to prepare for the all nighter.

Best Buy

Best Buy is offering a free Blu Ray player when you purchase a Sprint smart phone. Or how about this, a 55″ LCD tv for under a thousand bucks. Its top doorbuster sale is a 42-inch 1080p Sharp LCD TV for just $199.99. (Another doorbuster is a Toshiba Blu-ray player for a mere $39.99.) That beats the 40-inch Element LCD that Target is offering for $265.

Wal Mart/h2>

Walmart Kicks-off Three Black Friday Events starting at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Today on Thursday, November 10, 2011 the Walmart Black Friday flier was released on Facebook and Walmart.com. It is supposed to help families with their Christmas shopping and to save them money. There are three special-shopping events. The first one is for toys, home, and apparel starting at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day(November 24th). The second event starts at midnight on Black Friday(November 25th). This second event is for electronics. The third event starts at 8 a.m. on November 25th through the weekend. It is for presents for the entire family and electronics. These events are good while supplies last. You can get the hot new Xbox release Batman, Arkham City for under $30, a 50% discount.

Target

Target seems to have Best Buy and Walmart beat n base models of video game consoles. It’s offering a 4GB Xbox 360 for a mere $139.99 and a 160GB PlayStation 3 for $199. only one other Black Friday TV deal: the 32-inch Samsung LN32D403 for $277.99, which is about $50 less than what Amazon is selling it for now.

Amazon

Amazon knows when you are looking for its Black Friday deals, because when you Google it and hit an Amazon page, it actually lists early Black Friday deals tailor made for you, based on your previous browsing history. Of course, Amazon offers some nice deals in Electronics, such as 30% savings on a Leap Pad Leapster. Or $3.99 for the latest Harry Potter DVD. You can also sign up for the daily deal of the day delivered to you via email.

Toys R Us does accept prepaid debit cards for purchases on the retailer’s website and in store locations. They also welcome gift cards. Indeed, you can get a Toys R Us gift card in a variety of design, or even personalize your own card.

Toys R Us had a problem back in 2009, reports the Consumerist, of accidentally double charging some customers for their purchases. However, the store credited everyone who experienced a double charge for the erroneous charge.

Toys R Us accepts Visa and MasterCard debit, prepaid, and credit cards. They do NOT accept personal checks, COD or layaway plans.

650,000 consumers left big banks to join credit unions in the past month, ahead of Bank Transfer Day, according to Credit Union National Association (CUNA).

Bank Transfer Day happened Nov. 4, 2011. It was the brainchild of a fed up consumer, Kristen Christian, who set up a Facebook page to encourage people to send big banks like Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America a message by transferring their accounts to credit unions or smaller banks that presumably would provide more personalized service and not have excessive fees. Even though Bank of America backed down from its plans to charge most of its individual account holders a $5 a month fee for the privilege of accessing their own money via a debit card, and other banks followed suit, consumers are still mistrustful. Will big banks continue to seek ways to recoup their lost profits from the new consumer protection laws that among many changes lowered the swipe fees banks could charge merchants for every debit card transaction.

If one person can set up a Facebook page and get more than 80,000 people to pledge to close their bank accounts with big banks, where does it end? After all, governments have fallen in the Middle East during the Arab Spring, thanks in part to the power of social media to unit people in protest. Now Occupy Wall Street has captures the imagination of Americans fed up with income inequality, and the sense that the levers of power around the world are controlled entirely by the financial elite. When voting doesn’t seem to change anything, more people are captivated by the idea that change can happen when people unite in collective actions such as public demonstrations, boycotts of certain products, or selective transactions.

Can just 80,000 people moving their money into credit unions make a difference? According to Forbes magazine: “If the 80,000 signed up for Bank Transfer Day indeed move their money, they stand to save a combined $4.8 million a year as credit union members save on banking fees, states Bill Cheney, CEO of CUNA. If over 400,000 consumers made the switch, they’d stand to save about $29.8 million just by joining a credit union. When you look at what consumers could gain and not just what banks would lose, it becomes a positive movement with long-standing legs.”

Think about the environmental movement and the countless concessions big businesses have made to “go green.” Grocery stores now all offer reusable grocery bags as an option at check out, for example. Trucking companies are switching to bio-diesel fuels.

People are outraged at other fees such as overdraft fees and transfer fees. And small business owners are frustrated that banks have tightened up their lending policies to the point that it is very difficult for them to get loan to expand their business. While banks have not signalled any concern about individuals closing their accounts, since each account does not represent a large deposit, they have discussed concerns about business closing business accounts. If enough small businesses closed their accounts, it would likely result in banks pivoting to create new programs to try and lure them back, or keep them from leaving in the first place. In the end, the power of the purse is the best lever individuals have, because when they band together in collective action such as Bank Transfer Day, it gets the attention of the media, and in turn, attention of big business, politicians, and big finance.

We’re proud of the design of the MiCash card. It’s a beautiful prepaid card design, because we know that design matters. There are certainly some ugly cards out there. What makes our card stand out from the rest? It’s black. Black evokes elegance, refinement, and sophistication. Think of black and white photography. The simple “little black dress.” The coolness of midnight jazz.

The background image on the face of the card is the Washington DC metro, itself a classic design. Since we are headquartered in historic Georgetown, we felt the image was appropriate. However, it is subtle. More of a texture behind the blackness of the card. A few years ago, credit card companies came out with solid black cards, dark blue cards, and platinum cards, all to try and stand out from the average card. Some prepaid cars stand out by being gaudy, with lots of bright colors, and lots of words. Our card isn’t like that.

You’ll be proud to pull out the MiCash Prepaid Mastercard card when dining out, or making purchases in a store. It lets everyone know that you have the power to control your finances.

NPR reported this week on a troubling trend. Bank of America in Idaho and in other states is suing people who lost their homes to foreclosure to attempt to recover the difference between the mortgage and the current value of the home in today’s market. This is called a deficiency judgement. In the case of Ben Jensen and his wife, Bank of America sued them for $140,000. Unfortunately for the Jensens, Idaho is one of about 40 states that allow banks to pursue deficiency judgements. Even though the Jensens had lost their home and damaged their credit rating, the bank thought it was worth the effort to squeeze them for more money. They had at best $5,000 in savings, so there was no way the bank would get the amount they sought, and instead would merely have pushed the couple into bankruptcy. They managed to settle by will have to pay the bank $75 a month for three years.

According to NPR, “The National Consumer Law Center, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, confirms deficiency judgments appear to be going up across the country. How that plays out depends on state law. Geoff Walsh is a staff attorney with the organization. He says approximately 40 states, including Idaho, allow lenders to sue former homeowners for the amount of the mortgage that remains after a foreclosure.”

Anti Deficiency Laws

As a form of relief from some aspects of foreclosure, some states have “anti-deficiency” laws, which protect purchasers of residential real property used as primary residence.Anti-deficiency laws typically provide no protection for second mortgages or home equity lines. Also, there is no protection when the property is not used as the primary residence of the purchaser.

In a typical foreclosure, if the purchaser fails to make the mortgage payment the property is foreclosed and title is obtained by the lender through a legal procedure. The property is then typically sold to pay the mortgage, and a deficiency between the sale price and the outstanding balance of the mortgage usually exists. Under anti-deficiency laws, if the mortgage is for the purchase of a dwelling occupied by the purchaser, the purchaser will not be held responsible for any deficiency. The lender can only recover the property and the proceeds of a subsequent sale. The purchaser does not pay any deficit between the sale proceeds and the outstanding loan balance. This allows the purchaser to walk away from a property without owing a deficiency judgment amount.

States that have statutes in place to prevent banks from going after a deficiency include:

Alaska
Arizona
California
Connecticut
Florida
Idaho
Minnesota
North Carolina
North Dakota
Texas
Utah
Washington

In some states, banks are only allowed to file a single lawsuit to collect a mortgage debt. How this plays out varies by state. In New York, for example, a lender must choose between the actions of foreclosing on the property or suing to collect the debt. The following states have some type of one action statute:

California
Idaho
Montana
Nevada
New York
Utah

How to Avoid a Deficiency

It pays to contact your bank as soon as you can’t make a mortgage payment. Try to get a loan modification, or a reduction in the principle. As long as you continue to make payments, you may qualify for the new federal program propose d by the Obama administration to make it easier to refinance a mortgage, provided you have stayed current on payments for more than six months. Talking to the bank can be painful, and the bank will continue to call you for status updates, but it’s better to try to do a short sale (selling your home for less than you paid for it) with the bank’s approval, than simply walking away and letting the foreclosure go through. You may be able to work out a deed in lieu of foreclosure. This type of mortgage default requires the cooperation of both the lender and the borrower. It is fast and inexpensive because both parties agree to transfer the property to lender, avoiding the time and expense of foreclosure. Another way to avoid a deficiency is to declare bankruptcy. Even the threat of declaring bankruptcy can get the bank to cave in and reach some sort of settlement, as in the case of the Jensens. The earlier you settle, the lower the settlement is likely to be.

In the end, losing one’s home is perhaps one of the most stressful things that can happen in life. On top of this stress, the last thing anyone needs is to have the threat of the bank that gave you the mortgage come after you, even years later.

Payday loans are a bad idea that unfortunately is a huge business in America. When people live paycheck to paycheck, and run out of cash before their next pay period, they are often tempted to get a payday loan. These are short-term, high-interest loan sas an advance against your next paycheck. Perhaps your car breaks down, and now you have have an unexpected expense. With no credit, and no friends or family to loan them the money, a payday loan seems like a a good option.

The problem is that people seldom borrow the money for one month and pay it all back the next month. Typically, they roll over the loan, and try to keep up with the high interest rate. What happens is a harsh cycle of constant payment of interest owed, and taking out a new loan to get you through to the next pay period. After a year of this, you wind up having paid far more in interest than your original first payday loan.

Because payday loan places are considered predatory lenders, taking advantage of low income people, many states have banned them outright or severely restricted what they can do. Thus, many payday loan companies with physical locations have closed up shop and went online instead. They have also gotten around new laws, by rebranding themselves and “micro loan” companies along the lines of quite legitimate nonprofits such as Kiva.org. They also try to get through a loophole in the law to say that their loan is an “auto loan” when in reality, they aren’t selling you a car directly, and aren’t requiring proof that you are actually using the loan to by a car.

Now, apparently, the FTC is going after the worst offenders. A recent post on the FTC’s web page describes a District Court case brought by the FTC against Payday Financial, LLC, doing business as Lakota Cash and Big Sky Cash, who allegedly send documents to their borrowers’ employers that mimic a garnishment by the Federal government. The FTC alleges that these lenders illegally revealed consumers’ unproven debts to their employers and deprived consumers of their right to dispute the debts or make payment arrangements. The complaint further alleges that lender “…misrepresented to employers that the defendants are legally authorized to garnish an employee’s wages, without first obtaining a court order.”

While not as bad as payday lenders, banks are also getting in on sucking in high profits on the backs of people who are tempted to get quick cash for short term needs at high interest. One typical method is to offer a payday loan if you keep a minimum deposit of say $200 with the bank. Of course, if you don’t pay it back right away, the interest compounds so that the annual interest is quite high. Similarly, credit card holders are no doubt used to getting something that looks like blank checks from their credit card company. The credit card company encourages you to “use the checks” like cash, hoping that you do not read the fine print about the interest rate being the “cash advance” rate, which is usually much higher than the interest rate for purchases. For example, your purchases interest rate might be 12% but your cash advance rate 24%!

So, the bottom line is if you feel you need quick cash, start budgeting like a mad man. If your car breaks down, take the bus for a while until you can save enough for another car.

Bank of America raise a flurry of criticism this week when it announced that it was going to start charging its customers a $5 month fee for use of the debit cards that are issued with checking accounts. Bank of America and other banks have initiated these new monthly fees in response to the new lower transaction fees that retailers pay banks when accepting debit cards for consumer transactions. These so called “swipe fees” used to average 44 cents a transaction and now they are half that. Retailers will benefit the most from the lower swipe fees, and all it takes is a few of them to pass on the savings to consumers for everyone else to benefit. Banks, however, aren’t taking the change sitting down, because they got used to making huge profits from high swipe fees.

According to the Washington Post:

Perhaps the bank’s decision simply reminded us all over again that we are living increasingly in a fee-littered world, where companies continually seek out new ways to nibble away at our wallets by charging for the smallest of once-free services, leaving many customers feeling nickel-and-dimed.

“The proliferation of a la carte fees has inundated the economy,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Companies “are inventing new fees; they are making it harder to avoid fees; they are increasing the fees. . . . It’s much more complicated to be a consumer”

Banks like Bank of America got used to racking up big profits from the debit card swipe fees, and rather than accept less (some would argue reasonable) profits, they are looking for ways to profit through customer fees.

Many people are fed up with fees for everything. They especially hate sudden large price increases like Netflix announced. And people notice when something was once free, like luggage on airlines, are suddenly seen by businesses as new areas for profits.

After announcing the debit card fees, Bank of America saw its stock drop 9%. It is threatening to lay off thousands of its employees. It calculated that some of its customers would leave the bank and find a new bank that does not charge a monthly fee for debit card use. However, prepaid cards are a good alternative for them.

Prepaid Cards Offer an Alternative

While prepaid cards have always had monthly fees, those fees are straightforward and perceived as necessary to cover the business costs of the prepaid card companies. They are not on top of other fees, like minimum balance fees on checking accounts, or overdraft fees.

More and more people are getting rid of their checking accounts, to avoid annual fees, and minimum balances, and the risk of overdrafts, and the costs of printed checks. These people like prepaid cards, because they can still pay with plastic, manage their finances without going into credit card debt, and get cash when they need it from ATMs, or cash back on purchases.