Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions yet? Maybe you’re thinking you shouldn’t bother. Aren’t they the same every year anyway? You know how it goes. This year, you’re going to get organized. Really. You totally mean it this time! But sure enough, February rolls around, and you realize the only thing you’ve done to get more organized is purchase a set of “sorting boxes” and a day planner. Oh well, better luck next year, right? Wrong! It’s time put that attitude aside. You don’t need to spend more money or waste hours of your life putting trinkets in bamboo boxes to get organized. Start simple. For an easy way to eliminate that giant paper pile on your desk, check out Manilla, a free online bill management system.

Account management for the 21^st century

Manilla provides one interface for you to keep track of all your bills. As of this writing, it syncs with 1,200 service providers in the United States: banks, phone carriers, insurance companies and utility companies. All the big names like AT&T and Comcast are there, but Manilla isn’t just for your cable bill. You can keep track of your magazine subscriptions, your Netflix account, your daily deals from Groupon and LivingSocial, your airline miles, and even your credit card’s rewards points if you have a Citi card. Don’t see a company listed? Just ask. Manilla is always looking to add new companies, and they want your input.

Once you sync your accounts with Manilla, you’ll never receive any paper mail from billing companies ever again. All your statements will be delivered online, sorted automatically, and available for you to access whenever you want. You’ll also never have to log on to a company websites to see your accounts, which means you won’t have to remember 20 different passwords. All you need is your Manilla password, and you’re good to go.

Alerts and reminders to help you make payments on time

People have all kinds of clever ways to remember to pay their bills. Maybe you mark due dates on a calendar, or leave your bills in a highly visible spot, like the kitchen table or right next to the front door. Despite our best efforts, we sometimes forget to pay anyway. For example, Americans spent more than $ 22 billion on credit card late fees alone in 2010, according to a consumer study by The Catalyst Group. Manilla helps you make this problem a thing of the past by keeping track of due dates for you. You’ll be automatically reminded of upcoming bills, and you can customize due date alerts to make them work best for you. Get emails or text messages (or both) as frequently as you’d like. Manilla’s got your back even if you’re rarely home. Their apps for iPhone and Android let you keep track of your accounts on your smartphone.

All your finances in one place

Being the credit card nerds that we are, we’re especially impressed with Manilla’s ability to manage your financial accounts. If you’ve got a credit card from any major provider, you can easily manage your account online. American Express, Citibank, Chase, Discover, Capital One and Bank of America are all there. If you happen to have a miles credit card, your airline account will probably be there too. Delta

Sky Miles, Virgin America Elevate Points and JetBlue True Blue are just a few examples of supported loyalty programs. If you’ve got a Citibank credit card, you can even keep track of your ThankYou points. You can also monitor your bank accounts. For most big banks, you can manage your loans and checking accounts separately. Don’t have a big bank? Manilla gets major points from us for supporting credit unions! Ask them to add yours if it’s not already listed.

Free for you, cost effective for companies

Okay, so if Manilla is so great, why is it free? Excellent question. Turns out, it costs companies less for customers to mange their accounts online. Companies spend an average of 75 cents for each piece of mail they send to their customers. To save on postage costs, they’re willing to pay a small fee to have that mail delivered through Manilla instead. Most companies also find that online bill pay promotes customer engagement and customer satisfaction, meaning they can spend less on customer support services.

Manilla will not drive your kids to school or polish your action figures

Okay, so we don’t know how you’re supposed to organize the rest of your life. But hey, with the time you save paying and organizing your bills through Manilla, you’re bound to come up with something. We don’t think there’s a website for that, but if we hear of one, you’ll be the first to know.

NerdWallet Credit Card Blog

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Important policies and fee information are often hidden in long, highly technical banking literature, according to Pew’s research of more than 250 checking accounts offered online by the nation’s 10 largest banks. The median length of disclosure documents is 111 pages and includes account agreements, addendums, fee schedules, and pages on the banks’ Web sites.

Pew’s checking disclosure template is one page with clear details on the account fees, overdraft policies and hold times. As described by the NYT Bucks blog, the new Chase disclosure didn’t exactly meet Pew’s template. It was three pages instead of one, but it did meet the spirit of Pew’s template. The two credit unions, Pentagon Federal Credit Union and North Carolina State Employees’ Credit Union, were able to keep their simplified disclosures to one page. PenFed’s disclosure adds an extra section at the bottom with additional checking account service fees. Half of SECU’s disclosure is the processing policies and dispute resolution.

Pew’s model checking account disclosure form is just a recommendation to banks and credit unions. There is discussion that the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may someday require all banks to standardize on a simplified disclosure.

There is already regulation that defines required account documentation and fee disclosures. This is the Truth in Savings Act of 1991 (Regulation DD). However, as I described in this April post, there are many reasons why improvements need to be made to the Truth in Savings Act.

Simple and Standard CD Disclosure?

All this attention on a simple and standardize checking account disclosure made me think that we need the same thing for certificates of deposit. Too many banks and credit unions hide their early withdrawal penalties and policies in the disclosures. As we learned this year when Fort Knox FCU increased the early withdrawal penalty on existing CDs, the policies that cover the early withdrawal penalty can be complicated and hard to find. If customers don’t understand these policies, a premature withdrawal may be much more costly than they had anticipated.

If I were to propose a simplified CD disclosure form, it would include a section for early withdrawal. The section would clearly specify the amount of the early withdrawal penalty, whether partial withdrawals of principal are allowed, whether approval by the bank is required for early withdrawal, and if the bank reserves the right to change the early withdrawal penalty on existing CDs before maturity.

What other details would you like to see in a standardized CD disclosure form?

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With the $ 25K maximum deposit, you can earn about $ 167 with this CD. That’s about $ 83 more than an account that has a 1.00% APY.

First Entertainment Credit Union also has a savings account called Firt500 Savings in which you can earn 5.00% APY on your first $ 500 (this used to be 7%). To qualify for this yield, you’re required to have a checking account with eStatements and either Online Billpayer or Direct Deposit. The low cap prevents this from being a great deal. You only can make about $ 20/year more than what you would make in a 1.00% savings account. You won’t want to join the credit union for this, but it’s an extra bonus if you join for the CD.

This credit union regularly comes out with some attractive CD deals. In 2010 they were offering a 1.75% 11-month special CD and in 2007 they were offering a 6% CD. A reader commented about opening these certificates in 2007 and thought “they were easy to deal with and pleasant.”

Membership is open to most individuals who live, work, attend school or worship in the Greater Los Angeles Area. You can also be eligible via select employee groups and via family members (and not just immediate family). Please refer to the credit union’s Becoming a Member Page for more details. Membership requires a one-time fee of $ 5 and a minimum deposit of $ 5 into the First500 Savings Account.

First Entertainment Credit Union branches are located in the California cities of Burbank, Hollywood, Culver City, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Studio City and Valencia. The credit union is also part of the CU Service Centers which allows you to conduct many banking transactions at other credit unions which are part of this shared branching network.

The credit union has an overall health score at DepositAccounts.com of 4 stars (out of 5) with a Texas Ratio of 14.53% (above average) based on September 2011 data. Please refer to our financial overview of First Entertainment Credit Union for more details. The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 68373).

How This CD Rate Compares

In today’s environment, it’s very hard to find 3-month and 6-month CD rates over 1.00%. The highest 6-month CD bank rate that’s nationally available is 0.85% APY at Virtual Bank. For credit unions, the highest rate is 1.20% APY (with a relationship) and 0.95% APY (without a relationship) at Digital Credit Union. For short-term CDs, it’s hard to beat Ally Bank’s 11-month No-Penalty CD which has a 0.91% APY. The no-penalty feature allows you to make this CD to have any term you want from 7 days to 11 months (see my review). These rates are accurate as of 12/26/2011.

Searching for the Best CD Rates

To search for the best nationwide CD rates and the best CD rates in your state, please refer to the CD rates section of DepositAccounts.com.

Deposit Accounts

More on the talks: to.pbs.org President Obama said in a Friday evening news conference that he will call leaders to the White House for a Saturday morning meeting, shortly after House Speaker John Boehner walked away from debt negotiations.

It’s a small credit union with two branches located in Los Angeles and Orange, California. What makes this credit union unusual is its field of membership. Here’s what is stated on the credit union’s front page regarding membership:

Polish descendants and friends of the Polish Community are free to join POLAM. Visit us, bring a valid ID, a minimum deposit of $ 100 and $ 20 for the PAC membership fee. You will be enrolled as a member of the Polish American Congress.

I have covered a few other credit unions with fields of membership based on ethnicity. One in particular is Self Reliance New York FCU in New York City which only accepts those with Ukrainian descent. Readers have learned from the credit union that it’s very difficult to qualify. It appears Polam FCU makes it easier. If you join Polam, please leave a comment about how easy it was to join.

The credit union has an overall health score at DepositAccounts.com of 3 stars (out of 5) with a Texas Ratio of 10.22% (above average) based on September 2011 data. Please refer to our financial overview of Polam Credit Union for more details. The credit union is federally insure by the NCUA (Charter # 19739).

How These CD Rates Compare

These CD rates are very competitive for the LA metro area. For those who live east of LA in San Bernardino County, you can qualify to join Alaska USA FCU which has even higher rates. These include a 2.75% APY 5-year CD and a 2.10% APY 3-year CD for a $ 100K minimum deposit.

Another good CD deal for those in Southern California is the 59-month CD special at US Bank. This is also available nationwide.

The best 3-year and 5-year CD rates available nationwide are at Melrose Credit Union which has a 1.91% APY 3-year CD and a 2.68% APY 5-year CD.

These rates are accurate as of 12/22/2011.

Searching for the Best CD Rates

To search for the best nationwide CD rates and the best CD rates in your state, please refer to the CD rates section of DepositAccounts.com.

Deposit Accounts

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