By Tyler Metzger

Portions of a new law will affect how young adults get credit cards. The law, which will put age restrictions on credit cards and ban certain types of marketing from college campuses, takes affect February 2010.

Our reporter talked to students at the University of Missouri and got their reactions.

halifax.co.uk

Source creditcards.com

Personal finance columnist Erica Sandberg discusses why there are problems when it comes to sharing credit. She also gives solutions for couples having problems and tips on what to discuss so you can avoid any arguments.

• NetSpend.com

• Searscard.com

• Colonialbank.com

This articles from creditcards.com

Cards can carry germs, but you can be inhospitable

By Jay MacDonald

What’s your best money defense against the H1N1 swine flu?

It just might be your credit card, provided you follow these flu-fighting safety tips.

Seasonal viruses tend to spread from person to person when the germs that cause them become airborne via coughing and sneezing. When you touch a surface that contains those germs and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth, those hitchhiking microbes can quickly start a block party in your body.

Sponsored Link

• Nissanfinance

• Wamucardsaccount

• Ripoffgetreport

Money is a common carrier of seasonal germs, which thrive in warm, relatively moist locations like your purse, trousers or jacket pockets. Because it is porous and changes hands frequently, currency can easily pick up and pass on germs. Why do you think they call it filthy lucre?

Enter credit cards to the rescue!

Sure, plastic can pick up germs just as readily as cash or third graders. The difference is, you can clean your credit cards quickly and easily. And with a little diligence, yours will be the only hands to come in contact with your sanitized credit cards.

“Any surface could contribute to the passing of the virus, which typically will live up to six to eight hours after contact has been made,” says Llelwyn Grant of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“We stress things like cover your nose and mouth with tissue when coughing or sneezing; wash your hands as frequently as possible, mainly with soap and water or alcohol-based hand cleaners; avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth because these are typically ways in which germs are spread; and stay home when you are sick,” Grand says.

Here are 10 flu-fighting credit card tips for healthy shopping this winter.

1. Clean the keypads
In terms of daily touches by sniffling strangers, point-of-sale terminal keypads and ATM keyboards rank right up there with doorknobs and stair rails as a Woodstock for germs. Even before you pull out your plastic, use an antibacterial wipe or tissue with alcohol-based sanitizer to de-bug the keypad or keyboard as well as your own hands and fingers before you start your transaction.

2. Swipe your own card
It’s fortuitous that the swipe-your-own-card movement, which initially grew out of concerns for card security, coincidentally fights germs as well. Because when you innocently hand your card to Florence the friendly checker, she will hand you back a card carrying not only her germs but unsavory hitchhikers from every debit card, credit card, bill and coin she has handled since her last break. Yuck!

“We don’t have any data on the number of germs that are passed through the handling of credit cards, but there is that possibility, especially if you’re dealing with an individual who is contaminated,” says Llelwyn Grant of the CDC. “It could fit into that window where their contamination is high.”

Don’t risk it. Swipe your own card (after cleaning the keypad first) and give Flo a big smile instead.

3. Wield your own pen
How times change. When once we complained that there were no pens available at the payment terminal, we now dread having to pick up that lone bacteria-bearing Bic. Solution? Carry your own pen and use it to sign your credit card slips. When confronted with a touch-screen stylus, either use your own pen with the ball point retracted or sanitize the stylus with an antibacterial wipe before use.

4. Avoid public surfaces
How many times have you placed your card on a courtesy counter while you navigated the onscreen prompts at a payment terminal? Millions, right? And that’s probably the number of potentially harmful germs your card picked up as a result. Consider all public surfaces suspect, especially counters and floors. Best bet for counter sanitation: Only draw your card for the big swipe.

5. Wipe after swipe
Granted, the inside of a card terminal slot is a pretty mysterious place, filled with all sorts of gadgets that few of us understand. But one thing is certain: It also likely harbors bacterial residue from the countless cards that preceded yours. Clean in, dirty out. To avoid packing home other people’s illnesses, wipe your card apres swipe with an alcohol-based antibacterial product. You’ll earn extra public-health karma if you wipe it down both before and after your swipe.

6. Wallet up
Frequent card users can become pretty cavalier with their credit cards, leaving them handy for convenience on dashboards, restaurant tables, bar counters and even public bathroom vanities. Anytime your card touches a public surface, millions of germs potentially make the leap from that cold, impenetrable plastic to your warm, porous hands and from there to your eyes, nose or mouth. The only time your credit card should be exposed is when you are using it. Otherwise, wallet up, both for security and hygiene.

7. Avoid dirty money
A credit card has a natural advantage over currency as a germ-fighting form of payment because it can be quickly and easily cleaned and disinfected. But if you stick your freshly cleaned card back into your wallet or pocket next to a fistful of filthy bills, it doesn’t take a Louis Pasteur to figure that your clean plastic will be instantly compromised.

“Some people use a wallet that is specifically made for credit cards that separates them from your regular currency,” says the CDC’s Grant. “If you feel more comfortable, you should by all means do that.”

8. Don’t lick that card!
It sounds bizarre, but some cardholders and more than a few cashiers will occasionally apply a little saliva to the magnetic stripe on a credit card to give it a better chance of being approved when swiped into a balky card reader. Ewww, but true: Licking a credit card can make it work better.  To avoid this unpleasant and potentially infectious exchange of bodily fluids, don’t lick credit cards — yours or anyone else’s! Should someone lick yours, wipe it off immediately with a sanitizing product, preferably nonflavored.

9. Wash up at the mall
For healthy shopping, don’t wait until you return home to wash your hands. By doing so, you risk transferring the germs you acquired during your credit card transaction to things like your steering wheel, child car seats, key chain and upholstery. The CDC recommends washing your hands for 20 seconds with soap under the hottest water you can stand. That’s about a long as it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” to yourself twice — and we can’t think of a better gift.

10. Shop online
What’s an extremely effective way to keep other people’s hands off your credit cards while you shop? Duh — shop online, of course. This flu preventive takes the worry out of being close to folks with runaway bugs — unless of course, you’re using a shared keyboard and you’ve got a home or office that’s overrun with snifflers and sneezers. Then, be sure to keep the antibacterial wipes handy. They’ll help with germs and bugs, even if they won’t protect you from computer viruses.

www.WellsFargo.com is the online presence for Wells Fargo Bank. Wells Fargo Bank was founded in 1852 in New York and now holds its corporate offices in San Francisco. It is a publicly traded company on the NYSE known as WFC for Wells Fargo & Co. Its trademark is the stagecoach and the slogan “The Next Stage.”

The purpose of this hub is to review http http://www.wellsfargo.com. Below you’ll find what I liked and didn’t like about the site, whether I’d recommend its use, and my overall rating out of 10. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have used the site and you have anything to add.

www wellsfargo.com offers the following services:

• Loans : home mortgage, home equity, student, personal, auto
• Investing: private bank, mutual funds, brokerage, retirement planning, insurance, etc.
• Banking: online, bill pay, checking, savings and CDs, credit cards, etc.
• Individual, small business, commercial accounts

Wells Fargo is often misspelled. If you search Wells Fargo bank under these terms you won’t reach the site: Welsfrago.com , welllfargo , www.welfargo.com , wellfargo , welfargo , well fargo bank , wellsfago , wels fargo , and well fargo. If you type in the incorrect urls: www. welsfrago.com, www.wellfargo.com, www.welfargo.com, or www.wellsfargobank.com you will either reach a page not found site or a spam site.

If you have a Well’s Fargo banking account following are a few tips as to why online banking with them is so beneficial, and how and where you can go to sign up for their online banking services.

There is definitely a long list of things that you can do with Wells Fargo online banking (Wellsfargo.com) . You can monitor your account activity, check your online statements, set your account up to alert you via cell phone or email, pay bills, view account balances, and much more. In

order to get started using the Wells Fargo Bank online service you will first need to sign up. In order to do so you will need to have a bank account with Wells Fargo Bank. Once you have an account with the bank you can visit their website at www.wellsfargo.com and fill out the enrollment form. You will have to create a unique username and password that you can use to login to your account. Remember to be creative when it comes to your username and password. In order to complete the online form you will also need your social security number, your ATM pin number and of course your account number.

If you are a little worried about safety, than you should make sure that you have a secure internet connection which can be obtained by purchasing additional security software. The Wells Fargo Bank also has very good security features to help ensure that your information stays private.

One feature that they include with their online banking that other backs may not is that Quicken and Microsoft Money users can use the software while performing their online transactions. There is a fee for using this service of $3 a month. This will allow you to use the software to make transactions and access your account.

When it comes to your bill pay it I free as long as your bank account qualifies. Make sure that you take the time to read through the list of eligible and qualifying account information. If your account is not eligible than you can expect to pay a small fee, if you still want to use the bill pay option.

If your savings will fall short of your retirement goal, it’s time to speed up! Here are three ways to accelerate toward your goal:

Online real estate information

Online real estate information

www.Zillow.com

Sponsored Link

1. Contribute to the max! If you’re contributing 5%, double your rate to 10%. If you’re contributing 10%, increase your rate to 25%, the maximum amount allowed by the Wells Fargo & Company 401(k) Plan, up to the IRS limits. Increasing your contributions by just 1% will make a difference. The more you save, the faster your savings will grow!
2. Change your asset allocation. Put your savings into investment funds with potentially higher rates of return. Money market (or stable value) funds offer the lowest rates of return. Fixed income (or bond) funds offer the second lowest. Stock (or equity) funds offer the potential for the highest rates of return. Keep in mind, however, that stocks also are considered the “riskiest” investment because their returns can vary the most. Remember that time reduces risk! Learn more about risk versus return.
3. Save outside of the 401(k) Plan. If you’re contributing to the maximum, putting your money in high-return investments, and still falling short of your retirement savings goal, consider opening an IRA, Roth IRA, or both. See if you qualify for these accounts and learn their tax advantages! You can apply for an IRA or Roth IRA at your nearby Wells Fargo Bank or online at www.wellsfargo.com.