You may remember the days when you would see advertisements in the newspaper or on the windows of your bank offering interest rates as high as three, four and even five percent on certificates of deposit (CDs). Those days, unfortunately, are long gone and now it is more likely that you see certificate of deposit rates going for less than one percent, which consumer money specialists say is pathetic and not the best place to invest your money. Experts are not the only ones warning against these types of investments.

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FARGO, N.D., Apr 01, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) –Wells Fargo Insurance Services has hired Lisa Flick as a commercial lines account executive in the Fargo, N.D. office. Flick will be responsible for servicing an existing book of commercial lines business.

“We’re excited to have Lisa join our service team here in the Dakotas,” said Debra Galt, insurance brokerage supervisor for Wells Fargo Insurance Services’ North Dakota and Minnesota offices. “With her background and expertise, we’re confident she will provide the quality of service our customers have come to expect of Wells Fargo Insurance Services.”

Flick joins Wells Fargo Insurance Services with more than 15 years of administrative experience.

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When I was a kid, purchasing school supplies meant getting a new notebook, a couple of pencils and pens, and a back pack. Today, you get a huge list of supplies the school expects you to buy for each child a few weeks before school begins. Have several kids, and it can be rather expensive. Here are a few ways that I’ve come up with to save money on buying school supplies.

Get Organized

Since the schools are now demanding everything from pencils to tissues, stuff comes home at the end of every year. Although they want new crayons, pencils, and notebooks when the school year begins again, you can reduce your purchases by putting away scissors, pens, markers, and highlighters when they are returned in the summer. C

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When the Arkansas-based Centennial Bank took over Old Southern Bank of Orlando when it recently failed, most customers assumed that the new bank would honor the old banks certificate of deposit rates. Unfortunately, the bank customers that were transferred were shocked to find out that Centennial Bank would not be honoring the high interest rates promised to them by Old Southern Bank of Orlando. Centennial Banks response was that they could not afford to pay such high rates and suggested customers trade their certificates of deposit in for one of the new bank’s products. T

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April 1 () – The Ministry for the Environment has backed a government plan to replace Environment Canterbury councillors with a commission, albeit reluctantly.

MfE director of natural and built systems Mark Sowden said that although the proposal was the only one put forward that will likely meet the government’s objectives, there were “significant risks” in suspending local body elections, and that such a course of action “should only be considered in exceptional circumstances,” according to the ministry’s regulatory impact statement (RIS).
The short timeframe to draft the legislation increased the risk that intervention was “incorrectly targeted” and could lead to unintended consequences that would require later legislation, he said.

“While the ministry has a general preference for using existing intervention powers where possible, there are strong arguments for legislative amendment in this case; and also for replaced the whole ECan council,” Sowden said in the RIS’s agency disclosure statement. “However, on the basis

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Difficulties with being able to pay off credit card debt continue to be an issue with some consumers, according to a recent report from Moody’s Investors Services.

The firm noted that the number of defaulted credit card accounts increased to 11.15 percent during January, which marks a percentage point climb of 0.83. Given forecasts for unemployment, Moody’s said it expects the charge-off rate to hit a high of 12 percent in the coming months.

Though the number of charge offs did increase during the first month of the year, the report from Moody’s did have a positive note about early-stage delinquencies, which are often a harbinger of later defaults. Read more…

This month, Wired Magazine is running an interesting cover story entitled The Future of Money: It’s Flexible, Frictionless and (Almost) Free. The article was quite thought provoking, but the general focus of the article was pretty deftly summed up in the final paragraph:

A generation ago, when people made the choice to switch to plastic, credit cards did not just replicate cash; they fundamentally changed how we used money. The ease with which people could make purchases encouraged them to buy much more than they had in the past. Entrepreneurs suddenly had access to easy — though high-interest — loans, providing a spark to the economy. Now,

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