| Overdraft Fees Catch Consumers Off Guard
Debit cards are very popular these days. But, many people are finding themselves stuck with huge overdraft fees from the cards. The banking industry calls the overdraft protection a "convenience". Using a debit card can be an easy way to pay. "I use my debit card for small purchases online and when I don't have cash," said Joseph Rizk, a college student and debit card user. But, if consumers are not careful that convenience can cost them. Rizk found that out the hard way. "I went to a fast food restaurant and made a small purchase and I overdrafted," he said. But he didn't know his bank gave him overdraft protection, so he kept using the card, thinking he had at least a little money in his account.
Mother robber sent to jail
A woman has been jailed for stealing ?80,000 ($219,000) from her mother who sold up her home in New Zealand to be nearer her daughter in the UK. Care worker Kim Goffin was jailed for two-and-a-half-years in Plymouth Crown Court yesterday after a judge heard how her mother Patricia Williams was left heartbroken and penniless. Widow Mrs Williams, 67, moved back to Britain from New Zealand so she could be closer to her daughter and her three grandchildren. The court was told Goffin, 47, offered to help her mother shop online and then used the information to empty her internet bank account. She got through more than ?80,000 in just 17 months and spent much of the cash buying designer clothes and splashing out on holidays. Jo Martin, prosecuting, said Mrs Williams gave her daughter details of her bank account so she could shop online for her with Tesco Direct.
Bank scheme for Lebanese expats
Staff Reporter
DOHA Bank and Bank of Beirut have launched a joint package BayRoot for the Lebanese community in Qatar with the slogan, �Your Doha route to Beirut�.
The salient features of the package were highlighted at a reception hosted by Lebanese ambassador Hassan Yousof Saad.
Leading members of the Lebanese community attended the reception as the guests of Doha Bank chairman Sheikh Fahad bin Mohamed bin Jabor al-Thani and Bank of Beirut chairman and general manager Salim Sfeir.
Doha Bank managing director Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Mohamed bin Jabor al-Thani and top executives from both banks attended the event.
Doha Bank CEO R Seetharaman described BayRoot as a joint package offering mutual financial and business services between Qatar and Lebanon.
�This partnership is the natural translation of the brotherly ties connecting Qatar and Lebanon, especially with more than 20,000 Lebanese expatriates in Qatar.
Ministers warn PM of English resentment
GORDON Brown has received repeated warnings from Cabinet colleagues that he must act to stem growing English resentment over the fruits of devolution, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, and Peter Hain, the Welsh Secretary, have stressed to the Prime Minister in a series of recent conversations the need to address English concerns on public spending and Scottish MPs voting on English laws that do not directly affect them. .
(AFX UK Focus) 2007-11-14 12:04 GMT: HSBC investor Knight Vinke calls for 'focus' from bank after subprime losses
LONDON (Thomson IM) - Knight Vinke, an activist investor in HSBC, said the bank's announcement today of further substantial provisions for losses due to the US subprime crisis, and debt trading, "underscores the risks associated with not focusing sufficiently on businesses where HSBC has comparative advantage." Knight Vinke also expressed concern that HSBC's management has failed to recognise that the group may have become too large and too complex, to be controlled effectively. The investor said: "We continue to believe that shareholders would benefit from greater focus, a more independent board and a truly impartial strategic review." Today HSBC said third quarter profits will be ahead of a year earlier, as a higher than expected 3.4 bln usd charge for US loan impairment was offset by revenue growth.
Here are a few words to the wise holiday shopper
The glittery ghouls and plastic pumpkins are barely back in their boxes, and already retailers are in full-blown winter-wonderland mode. Although it all might seem a little premature, retailers know what they're doing - and you should, too. Here are some tips to help you prepare a spending strategy that won't leave you wandering through a mall waving your credit card at any kiosk worker selling scented candles. 1. Know what you want to spend. The National Retail Federation's consumer intentions survey this year indicates that the average consumer plans to spend $816.69 on holiday shopping, with 76 percent of that going to gifts. If you don't have any savings at this point, that would be $16.33 a day from now until Christmas, $16.01 a day from now until the start of Kwanzaa or $28.16 a day from now until the start of Hanukkah.
IRS seeks taxpayers owed refunds
Brent Haaland of Minot considers a surprise tax refund right before Christmas to be pretty good timing.
But, he added, �Anytime is a good time.�
Haaland is one of six taxpayers who listed a Minot address on his 2006 tax return, but whose tax refund check came back to the Internal Revenue Service as undeliverable.
The IRS is looking for 147 taxpayers with North Dakota addresses to be able to deliver refund checks totaling $128,175. The average per taxpayer is $872.
Nationally, 115,478 taxpayers are due refunds worth about $110 million and averaging $953.
More than $25,000 is owed to people who live or once lived in the Minot area. They include four taxpayers who listed addresses in Williston, three from Belcourt, two from Minot Air Force Base and one each from Douglas, Alexander, Mohall, Stanley, Garrison, Washburn, Rugby and St.
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