Online Banking 411 typically discusses Wachovia online banking but with the recent acquisition, we will be covering more news about Wells Fargo.  Wells Fargo is a San Francisco based bank.  And, It is one of the largest banks in the United States.  We are hoping the Wells Fargo acquiring Wachovia will be good news for Wachovia account holders.

Wachovia On Line Banking:

Wachovia breaks out its banking products into Wachovia checking accounts, savings accounts, Wachovia CDs, Wachovia credit cards, gift cards, and online services.  This article will provide an overview of these Wachovia banking products.  Let’s start with the Wachovia checking accounts.

Wachovia Online Checking:

Wachovia has several free checking accounts.  The primary checking account is the Wachovia free checking account.  This accounts requires no minimum balance and has no monthly fees.  In addition to being a great free checking account you can add the Wachovia Way2Save option to help you save even more.

Wachovia also has some specialized free checking accounts geared to specific types of individuals like students and senior citizens.  The Wachovia Free Student Checking account is designed specifically for students.  Students can open a checking account, Wachovia will give students a free savings account and allow one free overdraft refund.

Wachovia Savings Account:

Wachovia savings rates are not high interest savings accounts, but for someone looking for a bank account to keep short term savings this might be ok.  The Wachovia Way2Save savings plan will give you a temporary increase in your Wachovia savings rates.  With an initial return of 5.00%, this Way2Save program is a good addition to the Wachovia savings account.  While the regular Wachovia savings rates are low, the Way2Save can dramatically increase your savings returns.

Wachovia CD Rates:

Wachovia CD rates are very competitive and are one of the most popular financial products offered by Wachovia online banking.  Wachovia currently has a featured CD that has a 7 month term and 4.00% Wachovia CD rates.  This 7 month Wachovia CD requires an initial deposit of $5,000.  If you are looking for a good short-term place to save money, this featured CD could be a great option.

Wachovia Credit Cards:

Wachovia also offers a variety of Wachovia credit cards.  Wachovia is currently offering a special introductory zero percent interest for balance transfers.  These Wachovia credit cards will keep this zero percent introductory rate for 12 months.  The Wachovia credit card rates range from 1.99% over the prime interest rate to up to 11.99% plus prime.  Online Banking 411 will take a deep dive on these credit cards in an upcoming article.

Wachovia Gift Cards:

The last Wachovia on line banking service that we will cover today are the Wachovia gift cards.  These gift cards come in values of $25 up to $600.  These Wachovia gift cards are sold to Wachovia checking account, savings account and command asset program customers.  The fee for these Wachovia gift cards is $3.95.  These make great gifts for anyone because they can be used anywhere.

We hope that this review of Wachovia online banking has been informative.  If you have any questions about these Wachovia on line banking products or any other Wachovia online services, please leave them in the comments below.  Our next article will cover Wachovia Visa Buxx cards.  So stay tuned.

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Kathy Harrison of Wachovia stated that about 3 percent of Wachovia’s home equity lines of credit customers were seeing their home equity lines decreased.  Some of the Wachovia online banking customers were having their credit lines suspend and others were just having their available credit lines reduced.

Wachovia Bank has stated that the purpose of this home equity lines reduction is due to falling home prices.  As homeowners’ homes decrease in price the equity in the home is reduced.  This reduction in home equity has increased the risk of these loans for Wachovia.

If you would like to learn more about the Wachovia Way 2 Save program, here is a Wachovia advertisement describing its Way 2 Save deal.

As mentioned before, Wachovia online banking always has a featured CD of the month. The August 2008 wachovia featured cd is the Wachovia 12 month CD. This 12 month Wachovia CD has a high cd rate of 4.25% APY. This featured Wachovia 12-month cd has a minimum opening deposit of $5,000.

If you want a shorter term Wachovia CD, the 9 month certificate of deposit has an APY of 4.15%.  This is only a loss of .10% which might be acceptable to you if having a shorter term is important enough for you.  The 9 month wachovia CD still has a $5,000 opening deposit requirement.

If the Wachovia 9 month CD still has too long of a term, the Wachovia 7 month featured CD has an APY of 4.00% with a cd interest rate of 3.92%.  The 7 month term of this Wachovia CD is great if you are looking for a short term savings option.  However, it too requires $5,000 minimum buy.

The featured CD rates at Wachovia are always good CD rates to check out.  Wachovia seems to always offer competitive CD rates.  Make sure that you check out the Wachovia CD rates at the Wachovia online banking website because CD rates change based upon where you live in the country.

In this Wachovia commercial, a trucking company needed to send its truckers to Florida to help deliver supplies to hurricane victims.  Instead of giving cash to their employees, the trucking company gave each trucker Wachovia gift cards.  This is a very creative way to use Wachovia card services.  I also think that Wachovia Visa Buxx could be helpful in these types of circumstances, but in helping parents to give money to their kids.

I hope that you enjoy this Wachovia video.

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Wachovia Bank offers a featured certificate of deposit every month.  July’s Wachovia Featured Certificate of Deposit is a 12 month CD with an interest rate of 4.16% and an annual percentage yield of 4.25%. It is important to note that the Wachovia on line banking website makes you enter in your zip code so that these Wachovia cd rates might change based on where in the United States you live.

While I wish that this month’s Wachovia featured certificate of deposit has a longer term, a 12 month cd is great for any one who wants to save money for a shorter period of time.  When I invest in certificates of deposits, I like to lock in at the highest cd rates for a longer time, but many people use Wachovia CDs as short-term investment vehicles.

This featured certificate of deposit has a minimum deposit of $5,000.  This is a lot of money for beginning investors.  However, if you have $5,000 to invest, the 4.25% APY is one of the highest cd rates around.

If you are at all concerned about having to withdrawal your money early, you need to becareful nvesting in CDs.    Wachovia Online banking charges an early withdrawal fee if you withdrawal your money early from the Wachovia certificate of deposit.  If you do withdrawal you money early, you will forego a portion of the interest that you earned.  This would make the APY go down significantly.

Wachovia CDs are insured by the FDIC for up to $100,000.  Having FDIC insurance is one of the great advantages of investing in certificates of deposits.  If Wachovia Bank would by unable to pay you for you certificate of deposit, The FDIC insurance would pay you up to $100,000.  This can give you some real peace of mind that your investment is protected.

If you haven’t checked out the Wachovia CD rates, you should head on over to the Wachovia on line banking website and check them out.  Wachovia CDs come in all different terms from as little as 3 months to 60 months.  If you have any question, please feel free to leave them in the comments below.

This pick-a-payment Wachovia mortgage rates was a loan product originally offered by Golden West Financial Corp. which Wachovia Online Banking acquired.  No longer will borrowers be able to pay the minimum payment plan.  All borrowers will now have to at least pay the interest due.  I believe that this is a good decision.  These negative amortizing loans overextend borrowers and add to the foreclosure problem in the United States.

From now on Wachovia mortgage rates will have to be paid as follows:

• an interest-only payment plan that does not reduce principal
• a 30-year payment plan, and
• a 15-year payment plan.

This decision to shut down the pick-a-payment minimum payment option might be part of the Wachovia mortgages article written last week about Wachovia hiring Goldman Sachs to provide consulting services for the Wachovia mortgage business.  It is not clear if these two events are independent of each other.

In March Wachovia had over $480 billion of loans in its assets.  This represents a significant increase in Wachovia mortgages.  However, in a housing market like we are in today the amount of adjustable Wachovia mortgage rates lent has become a concern for Wachovia Bank.  Banks all over the country are facing a terrible problem.  Many borrowers are having trouble paying off their adjustable rate loans.

As the Wachovia mortgage rates increase this problem is getting worse.  However,  rising interests rates would not be such a bad thing for Wachovia online banking, however, because the housing market is in a slump, Wachovia mortgages is having a hard to making back their money in foreclosure sales.

The controversial wachovia mortgages that are the root cause of this problem are option ARMs.  Wachovia mortgages markets these option ajustable rate mortgages as “Pick-a-Pay” mortgages.  Borrowers do not have to pay down their principal amount borrowed.  In fact they can also choose not to even pay the accrued interest.  This is very problematic for borrowers because while their house prices are falling their Wachovia mortgages are increasing. Hopefully, Goldman Sachs will help Wachovia mortgages out of this problem.

If you have ever forgotten you password and no longer had Wachovia account access, you know how frustrating this can be.  However, Handypass helps you to manage your all of your online passwords.  You can also load Handypass onto a USB stick so that you can have portability with your password manager and have access to your Wachovia my accounts and other Wachovia on line banking services.

Handypass also has a convenient Internet Explorer toolbar that you can setup specifically for your Wachovia online login.  This really makes logging on to your Wachovia online banking interface easy.  With the one click of a button, you can automatically login to your Wachovia My Accounts.  It doesn’t get any easier than that.

In addition to helping you with helping you to access your Wachovia online services, Handypass can help you to fill out online forms.  You can save preset form information into Handypass and then use the software to fill out online forms.  This is super convenient.

We hope that this little tool can increase the ease of use of the Wachovia online login.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask a question in the comments below.