Friday, December 26, 2008

What does the approval of the sale of National City to PNC mean for shareholders?

Do you own stock in National City Corp. bank? If so, you might be wondering what the approval of the sale to PNC means for you.

Depending on what price you paid for the NCC stock, you might not like the answer to that question.

According to the terms of the deal, holders of National City common stock would get 0.0392 share of PNC common stock for each National City share. Shares of National City preferred stock will automatically be converted into shares of PNC preferred stock with identical terms.

That works out to getting about $1.71 per share of NCC that you have.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Sometimes I hate ING Direct

I have a savings account and a checking account with ING Direct. I love them. But sometimes I really hate them. It's the whole sending checks for deposit by mail that always gets me angry. Last week I sent a $200 check for deposit. It was a check from out of state. It was a Christmas gift. I sent the check with another check for deposit. The other check showed up. The $200 one did not. That means that they are sending the $200 one back to me. They did not deposit it. Is it really too much trouble for them to call or email in this instance? I mean, hello, it's Christmas - I could NEED that!?! Now I am at the mercy of the postal system. I have to wait to get the check back to see why they would not deposit it. I know it is signed so I have no idea what is up.

How do I know all about this song and dance? I have had to go through this before with ING. This is how I found out they do not take money orders for deposit. Or credit card balance transfer checks. Argh!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

100 Free Trades with E*Trade

I have a rollover IRA with e*trade. And I suspect that is why they sent me an offer in the mail for 100 free trades at E*Trade Securities. Do you want to open up an investment account with E*trade and get some free trades? If so, here are the details from the letter that I got.

Visit etrade.com/100trades or call 1-800-738-9619 and mention offer code BA10WEB.

Fine print says that you get 100 free trades within 30 days. Current e*trade securities customers are excluded from the offer. To qualify you have to open a new Power E*Trade account with a minimum deposit of $1,000.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Holiday = too much spending!

Ah, the holidays are tough when it comes to spending. Sure, I set a budget. And I even tried real hard to stick to it. But I'm thinking it's just impossible. Impossible to stay on budget during the holidays. It seems like I have been doing nothing but spend, spend, spend! It almost makes me wish for the holidays to be over!

Friday, December 5, 2008

533,000 jobs lost in November

Wow, did you see this headline on Yahoo today? Employers cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years. Apparently those numbers put the national unemployment rate at 6.7 percent. That is a lot. This next line really struck me from the article.

The unemployment rate would have moved even higher if not for the exodus of 422,000 people from the work force. Economists thought many of those people probably abandoned their job searches out of sheer frustration.

Click on the link above to read the article.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Recession official

Well, this is some odd news. Odd in that it is totally obvious! Seems the "experts" released info today saying we are officially in a recession. Oh, and btw, we have been since Dec 2007. I'm not sure who found this news surprising. The lateness of it from the "experts" is what is truly surprising.

Cyber Monday shopping

I don't know about you, but my email inbox was full of cyber monday offers today. Apple wanted me to get a macbook with free shipping. Kohl's wants to give me a percentage off. Sam Ash wants to give me instruments at cost. Even CVS is having a sale. And the list goes on. For a moment I forgot I was in crazy debt and actually looked at some of them. Then I got a case of the "I wants." Luckily I remembered I have debt to pay off. :( Stupid debt