Checking Account

Spending smart isn't just about what you buy, but how you pay. Often that decision is based on the same question you're asked about grocery bags at the supermarket checkout: paper or plastic? Paper includes cash and personal checks, while plastic includes debit and credit cards. Which should you use? In the end, the answer mostly depends on how disciplined you are with money. Here are some pros and cons of each type of payment, along with a tip you might not already know. Checks Pros: You won't incur credit-card finance charges and you can track spending in the checkbook register.

AT THE Baltimore Ravens training camp, former Cincinnati Bengal Ickey Woods is held up as an example.It's not because of the former running back's rushing skills or his famous Ickey Shuffle (two hops to the left, two hops to the right) after a touchdown. It's his finances.A knee injury ended Woods' career in 1992 at age 26. With six kids and no six-figure salary anymore, he supported his family by peddling frozen meat door-to-door.The handful of Ravens players attending a National Football League-sponsored financial education class this fall heard this story as a lesson that fortune, like fame, can be fleeting unless players plan ahead.

First Union Corp. and First Fidelity Bancorp. said yesterday that they have finalized their merger, creating a mega-bank with offices in 12 states, including Maryland, where it will have 52 branches and $3.5 billion in deposits.Joseph A. Cicero, who headed Newark, N.J.-based First Fidelity's Baltimore unit, was named the area president of First Union's Baltimore region.A year ago, First Fidelity acquired Baltimore Bancorp, where Mr. Cicero was chief financial officer.The merger creates the nation's sixth-largest banking company with estimated assets of $126 billion.

NationsBank Corp. unveiled yesterday a personal computer banking service that allows its customers to pay their bills, transfer money between funds and check stock quotes from their home computers.The service, called NationsBank PC Banking, should be available to customers in the Baltimore and Washington area by fall, company officials said yesterday.Fees for the service vary from region-to-region, and NationsBank did not have specific charges for the Baltimore/Washington area, but a spokesman said they will be similar to those in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Harford County merchants are being warned about accepting checks drawn on out-of-state banks after a recent increase in bad-check cases.The written advisory was based on a "growing trend, a new form of shoplifting where people buy something and knowingly write a bad check to pay for it," said State's Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly."

NEW YORK -- What's the single most hated bank fee in America? I'd guess it's the fee known in bank parlance as "deposit item returned" (DIR) and in English as something unprintable.You may pay a DIR when you get a check, deposit it, then learn it bounced. You're entirely blameless; you had no idea that the check wouldn't clear. Nevertheless, the bank nicks you for an average of $4.75 to $7.50, with some banks going as high as $10 (large banks charge more than small ones).Five years ago, about two-thirds of the banks were charging DIRs on individual accounts, according to the American Bankers Association.

Banks in Maryland charge their customers some of the highest fees in the nation, including a hefty $222 a year on average to maintain a checking account, according to a survey released yesterday by a consumer advocacy group.The survey by the Maryland Public Interest Research Group also found that banks in the state charge consumers higher fees to use ATMs as well as to maintain savings and basic checking accounts than banks in other states."The results of this survey are outrageous," said Daniel Pontious, executive director of Maryland Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer and environmental group.

A roundup of new products and servicesCheck this outA new series of bank checks with African-American themes is the brainchild of 24-year-old Ty Canady. Ms. Canady got the idea after watching an Oprah Winfrey show on women entrepreneurs. Her company, AfrocenCheck, produces three groups of checks that are designed to highlight the importance of the African-American dollar in the economy. One set features African-American leaders such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, W. E. B. DuBois and Sojourner Truth.

A federal grand jury yesterday indicted the former president of Riggs National Bank of Maryland and First Fidelity Bank, charging him with conspiracy to misapply bank funds and to deceive bank regulators. A former Riggs vice president also was indicted.John E. Donahue, 52, of Alexandria, Va., conspired with two employees between 1986 and 1989 so that he could write checks that would not be charged to his accounts, prosecutors said.The purported scheme began when Mr. Donahue was president of First Fidelity and continued after the bank became Riggs National in 1987.

New York -- All financial planning starts with a budget. But many people seem constitutionally incapable of keeping one.If that describes you, planner Michael Davis of the Resource Consulting Group in Orlando, Fla., has a better idea. He knows that you'll probably spend the money you see in your checkbook. So he spirits some of that money out.He evolved his system, he says, because "talking about budgeting falls on deaf ears." People tend to do all right with their regular monthly bills. "But then a big item comes along, like a vacation, and they don't have the money to pay for it."

News item: Auditors uncover $39.7 million in an obscure city tax collection account that had been left untouched for years. Baltimore finance director says he is embarrassed by the oversight, which is blamed on staff turnover and poor communications. To: Edward J. Gallagher, director of finance Fm: Baltimore taxpayers Re: Some helpful reminders No offense, but have you checked all the city's collection accounts? Replaced the batteries in the calculators? Read every bank statement?

They stared, disbelieving, at the electricity bill, as if their scrutiny could somehow force the ridiculous number into a more reasonable form. "Why is it so high?" her husband asked. "Because I'm home all day," answered Jennifer Hart-Walters, who had quit teaching school to be with their two kids, who wanted to sing them the ABC song all day long, who now, faced with that electricity bill and so many other increasing costs, realized that her days as a stay-at-home mother were over. In February she reluctantly left the kids in day care and took a part-time job. "We were noticing much less spending money in our checking account - no money actually in our checking account," said Hart-Walters, 35, who lives in Baltimore's Hunting Ridge neighborhood.

Denise Stanco was desperate. Trying to stop a theft from her checking account in progress, the 54-year-old information technology specialist frantically e-mailed her last hope - in the Kingdom of Bahrain. In three e-mail messages, the Catonsville resident explained that someone swiped her debit-card number, faked a passport in her name and purchased two tickets worth $1,201 on Bahrain's Gulf Air. Stanco pleaded with someone, anyone to help her. Everyone she turned to thus far had disappointed her, since she'd learned from a credit-monitoring service that someone had used her debit-card number to purchase Gulf Air tickets, Birkenstocks and Asian Air tickets.

Spending smart isn't just about what you buy, but how you pay. Often that decision is based on the same question you're asked about grocery bags at the supermarket checkout: paper or plastic? Paper includes cash and personal checks, while plastic includes debit and credit cards. Which should you use? In the end, the answer mostly depends on how disciplined you are with money. Here are some pros and cons of each type of payment, along with a tip you might not already know. Checks Pros: You won't incur credit-card finance charges and you can track spending in the checkbook register.

Many single seniors today are financially secure. Their wills are signed, and they have insurance for any medical crisis. But what if an emergency or injury leaves you incapacitated? Large funds and assets can end up sitting in accounts, inaccessible. Bills must still be paid for utilities and groceries and other necessities. Money could also be needed for extra medical services, such as lengthy hospital stays or home care. Moreover, family members could have to spend thousands of dollars in airline tickets to visit you and handle your affairs.

I recently paid off the balance on a department store charge card, using a check I sent through the mail. When I got my monthly checking account statement from the bank, it listed an electronic debit for the payment amount instead of showing the check clearing. I called the bank and was informed that it honors any debit - it assumed that the merchant had my permission for the transaction. I called the store and was told that the faint print on the back of the monthly bills informed me of the new practice sometime over the summer.

ALLFIRST WENT $750 million bad and they missed it? Hard to believe. When I tried to play the part of rogue with these people, they caught me right away. I was a rogue personal checking account customer. Once, during the height of the home-heating season, I committed an overdraft of $10 in my Allfirst account. Next day, I received an overdraft notice in the mail with a bill for, I believe, $25 in penalties. It was as if Allfirst Chairman Frank Bramble and President and CEO Susan Keating had been camped in the data processing center, eye shades down to their noses, so they could personally flag bum accounts.

AT THE Baltimore Ravens training camp, former Cincinnati Bengal Ickey Woods is held up as an example.It's not because of the former running back's rushing skills or his famous Ickey Shuffle (two hops to the left, two hops to the right) after a touchdown. It's his finances.A knee injury ended Woods' career in 1992 at age 26. With six kids and no six-figure salary anymore, he supported his family by peddling frozen meat door-to-door.The handful of Ravens players attending a National Football League-sponsored financial education class this fall heard this story as a lesson that fortune, like fame, can be fleeting unless players plan ahead.

NationsBank Corp. unveiled yesterday a personal computer banking service that allows its customers to pay their bills, transfer money between funds and check stock quotes from their home computers.The service, called NationsBank PC Banking, should be available to customers in the Baltimore and Washington area by fall, company officials said yesterday.Fees for the service vary from region-to-region, and NationsBank did not have specific charges for the Baltimore/Washington area, but a spokesman said they will be similar to those in North Carolina and South Carolina.

First Union Corp. and First Fidelity Bancorp. said yesterday that they have finalized their merger, creating a mega-bank with offices in 12 states, including Maryland, where it will have 52 branches and $3.5 billion in deposits.Joseph A. Cicero, who headed Newark, N.J.-based First Fidelity's Baltimore unit, was named the area president of First Union's Baltimore region.A year ago, First Fidelity acquired Baltimore Bancorp, where Mr. Cicero was chief financial officer.The merger creates the nation's sixth-largest banking company with estimated assets of $126 billion.