I have a severe disliking for most financial institutions, but unfortunately we all need them. The best we can do is hope that we’ve chosen to bank with one of the good guys. While I was a customer of UFB Direct’s online banking service – I experienced zero problems with their work. All of my deposits and transfers were processed quickly and any concerns that came up were successfully taken care of by customer service. UFB Direct’s services came without any fees or minimums and offered the highest interest rates that I could find at the time. I did, however, close out my accounts with UFB Direct recently because I hardly used them anymore. The main reason that my UFB accounts were stagnant was because I transferred most of my savings into my brokerage accounts so that I could readily buy stocks. I also grew tired of UFB’s constant change in ownership which meant new terms and conditions to review.

You see, at one point Sky Financial Group was the ‘man behind the curtain’ over at UFB Direct but in 2007 Sky was purchased by Huntington Bancshares. Then in November of 2008, I received notice that Waterfield Bank was taking over UFB deposits as well as imposing some new fees here and there. I eventually closed out my accounts because they weren’t being used and didn’t want to incur any fees. I have no problem with UFB Direct and would recommend them but just make sure that you review their current rates and minimums.

Why I was a member with UFB Direct

I have never had a customer service problem with UFB Direct. Even when I wrote them an email to close my accounts it was doesn’t the same day without any hassles. The hardest thing I ever had to do with UFB Direct was sign a signature card and fax it back to them, which was very simple. I lost my pin number to UFB’s debit card and they reset it within a couple of minutes on the phone. When I was visiting South Korea, I lost my debit card which was canceled and replaced without any headaches. UFB Direct had always taken care of me whenever I needed them to and didn’t bother me the rest of the time. UFB Direct only sent me my statements and important notices; I never received one piece of junk mail from them.

I also enjoyed having access to my savings and knowing that they were protected. Putting $10,000 in some stocks is much different than having that $10,000 available at a moment’s notice. While a stock could jump up 25%, it could just as easily drop by 25%. Any deposit with UFB Direct is FDIC insured and you are guaranteed to earn whatever their current rate is.

The Cons

With certain accounts you might only receive a debit card, rather than a debit/credit card. Most places accept debit so it’s not that big of a problem and you probably don’t want to go spending all of your savings anyway so maybe it’s for the best.

You can’t choose or customize your pin number; whatever they send you in the mail is what you’re stuck with. For some people (for example: me) it might be hard to remember an unfamiliar pin number. As I mentioned above, I always appreciated that UFB Direct made it harder for me to spend my savings.

When I wrote this article, you weren’t able to link external (non-UFB) bank accounts from UFB Direct’s side. In order to transfer money into UFB Direct you would need to set up a direct deposit, mail in a check, or link to your UFB Direct account from a bank account that allows external linking. For example: I use USAA (read my review) for my every day banking, so I would need to log on to USAA and add an external link to my UFB account from USAA’s interface. Once everything was verified, I would be able to send money to UFB or withdraw from UFB using USAA’s transfer process.

Final Ramblings

UFB Direct never did anything spectacular for me, but I’m kind of hard to impress anyway. When I wrote this article UFB Direct was refunding customer ATM fees, up to $4.50 or $6.00 (per statement period) depending on the type of account. This isn’t a lot of reimbursement but it’s better than nothing and you shouldn’t be withdrawing from your savings anyway. When I was a customer there weren’t any monthly service charges, but this might have changed. UFB Direct was very simple and it was easy to track my activity online at any time. If you’re interested in UFB Direct and have done your homework (rates, fees, minimums, etc.) – I recommend their services.

Visit UFB Direct and check out their rates.

You might call me cheap, stingy, thrifty, a tight-wad or a penny-pincher but I do most of my shopping online and I hate paying full price for anything. Comparing 10 different stores online is far easier than driving to 10 different stores nearby; which is what causes online prices to be lower than in-store prices. Whenever I’m looking for something that I want to buy, I will usually check the prices at a minimum of 5 different websites prior to actually making the purchase. I usually (a) always find a cheaper price than what is available to me locally and (b) receive free shipping on my goods. When you add the benefit of not paying sales taxes on most purchases (shakes his fist at New York) – the deals become even better. My problem is that even though I’ve found a cheap price somewhere, I’m getting free shipping and I’m not paying sales tax on the item – I still feel the need to receive some sort of deal. Most times I don’t care if it’s $5 off or a 30% discount – I just don’t want to pay what everyone else could buy it at. Finding the codes that get you a discount is often the most time consuming effort in the purchasing process, so I’m going to show you how I get it done.

Searching for additional savings

By the time that you read this article the product, prices and discounts may be different.

If you’re looking for a specific product – I suggest that you start at the manufacturer’s website. Visit the main website for the item that you want to buy and gather some detailed information. If it’s software you want, grab the latest version number – If it’s a leaf blower, grab the model number that you’re interested in. This will help you be more specific during your searches and you might even find a different discount when you use the model number rather than the product name. Normally, I will never buy anything directly from the manufacturer – but it’s a great place to start your research.

In this example we’re going to buy from my favorite print shop – OvernightPrints.com. Let’s say we need to buy 1,000 double sided business cards, which would cost us $49.95. In this example, we’ve already snooped around and it turns out that $49.95 is the best price available. So now that we know what we’re buying and who we’re going to buy it from – we will look for some type of discount from that store, preferably for that product.

Since I love Google, we’re going to start there. Do a quick search for discounts by using the company, the product and the words “discount code.” If you don’t like discount code, you can search for discounts, promos, coupons, deals and so on. Most of the time, my favorite discount website, RetailMeNot.com will show up in the rankings. Go to any of the sites that are listed and check out their special offers or promotional codes that you can enter when finalizing the checkout process. For this example Retail Me Not has a lot of codes for Overnight Prints, we just have to figure out which code will get us better savings. With the current listed codes for business cards from Overnight Prints, it appears that we could save 10% or $10. Since we’re talking about $49.95 we would opt for the $10 discount since 10% would only be $4.99.

Companies also offer special promotions from time to time – you may want to email them or sign up for their newsletter to find out when things will be on sale. While we’re on the subject – sign up for my newsletter to have my updates and articles delivered directly to your inbox.

A quick touch on Security

Most people that I speak with are too scared to get that big online deal because they think that their credit card will get stolen. Identity theft does happen but shying away from the internet isn’t going to protect you from it.

If you’re worried about your online dealings, I suggest that you sign up with PayPal and download their plugin. PayPal’s plugin allows you to generate a MasterCard number that can be used once or multiple times. Just imagine an endless supply of disposable credit cards! Even if your single-use credit card number was compromised during an online purchase, the criminals wouldn’t be able to charge it again.

I also recommend that you use a program called, “Roboform” to assist you with storing your personal information such as names/logins, addresses, phone numbers, passwords, credit cards, and banking numbers. Whenever you need to fill a form on any website, Roboform will automatically fill in all of the information with a simple mouse click. This not only helps you remember all of your important logins and such, but it protects you from hidden programs on your computer that record and send out logs of everything that you’ve typed on your keyboard.

Final Ramblings

If the advice above isn’t working or you’re planning on making a big online purchase and want to make sure that you’re getting the best deal – feel free to contact me and I’ll try my hardest to find some savings for you.