For their Op-Ed piece “Healthy Credit,” The New York Times enlisted the directors of Design for Democracy, a “nonprofit group that promotes accessible and transparent civic communications,” to design a Credit Card Facts box much like the Nutrition Facts Box made standard with the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. Here are the results:

While a Nutrition Facts box doesn’t tell us everything we should know about a food product, we, similarly wouldn’t expect a Credit Card Facts box to tell us everything. But requiring credit card companies to highlight the most important aspects of a credit card agreement would pair nicely with the recently signed legislation designed to protect consumers against unfair fees and penalties (recently described in the article “What the Credit Card Holder’s Bill of Rights Means to You” over at Mint.com). We at FABB support the NYTimes and Design for Democracy’s “Credit Card Facts” box design, and hope that this design or a similar one will help both the consumers with credit cards and the companies who offer them by clarifying the contractual agreement before costly misunderstandings occur.
 

Here’s a bit of Seth Green’s ’skit’ in the show, where he discusses the fundamentals of a smart mortgage from his MTV-style “crib.” If the rest of the show is anything like this, I’m sure it will be great.

UPDATE: Michael over at Money Musings has a pretty funny rant titled “Un-Broke? How about Un-Watchable?” regarding the show. A quote:

And the Jonas Brothers tutoring us on stock-market indexes?

THE JONAS BROTHERS?

Are you freakin’ kidding me?

Not going to lie, I didn’t tune in myself. And while I can agree that most television is designed for entertainment rather than education, I gotta say the above Seth Green vid still makes me happy.
 

Not necessarily. It turns out that when I called a number of banks and spoke to employees about it, each bank just had a different fancy names for their checks, no matter what kind of checks they were. The name was either a cover-up for basic checks — usually green, yellow, or a ‘delicate, pastoral’ blue–or similarly unnecessarily elaborately named designer checks–which really just means checks with pictures of Looney Tunes characters, Harley Davidson motorcycles, or very scenic…uh…scenes? (These are all postmodern gestures by the check-printing companies à la Richard Prince, I’m sure.)

The amount by which designer checks cost more than the basic checks depends on the bank and the check-printing company, and you might find it worth it to drop a couple extra dollars for the check set with beautiful mustangs. (One of the customer service agents told me there was only a $4 price difference between them, so “why not get the Disney checks?“)

Here’s the “Checks Name Rundown,” the result of conversations with a number of people at banks that offer free checks with at least one of their accounts. At the end of the day, I realized that even though there are a number of different check-printing companies, their offerings are nearly identical across banks. I also remembered, warmly, why I never use checks–because “delicate, pastoral” blue just isn’t my style. (The following links go to accounts with free checks at each bank.)
 

Check’s Name Rundown

 
- It turns out “safety” checks offered by Susquehanna Bank are actually safe. They’re printed in such a way that any solution that dissolves the ink on the check also leaves obvious traces, disallowing some forger from turning a check you wrote into a ‘blank check’ and sending a large amount to his Swiss bank account. Disappointingly, this is par for the course–a standard feature across all checks–so while it’s a legitimate “safety” precaution to have checks as cool-sounding as “safety” checks, they’re virtually identical to Beneficial Bank’s “Wallet Checks” and to Fifth Thirds Bank’s “custom” checks (which is just a misleading name for standard checks, if you ask me).

- There are two style-types of issued checks–”single” and “duplicate” styles. A “single”-style checkbook is a book of only checks, while “duplicate”-style checkbooks provide carbon copies of checks for your records. This recording technology is spectacular compared to anything–except for, of course, online banking and how it records debit card transactions automatically. (Sorry, had to go there.) Single style check names run the gamut from “wallet-style stock checks,” at Banner Bank in Walla Walla, WA, to the ever-so-fancy “basic check”, at RBC Centura in North Carolina.

- The number of checks in an introductory packs of checks can vary greatly. An “introductory” set of checks from Harris Bank include a whoppin’ 125 checks, while the “initial” checks at Bank of Internet and “starter” checks from 1st National Bank of Texas each include a measly 50 checks. If first impressions really are everything, Harris Bank would definitely be taking me out for dinner and a movie tonight.

 
The only check type that really sounded great to me was the “standard” check offered by First Tennessee Bank, but I couldn’t tell whether or not the customer service agent was excited about the check design too (pinstripe borders!) or just trying to lure me into buying them. Either way, I’ll have pinstripe-bordered checks stuck in my mind all night as I drive my Harley Davidson down to Disneyland.

The simple answer is that bankers believe online billpay users remain customers for more years than customers who don’t use online billpay. And an extra year of your business is worth providing you with free online billpay.

Look at the math: Let’s estimate the average cost (to the bank) to offer you billpay at $0.50 per transaction and the average customer sends out 8 bills per month (I know this from banks). That means it costs the bank about $4 per month or $48 per year to offer you free online billpay. So if their assumption that you’ll stick around longer is correct, it’s totally worth offering online billpay for free. Why? The average checking account customer generates about $300 in revenue (fees, $ on your deposits, etc.) per year and new customers are expensive to acquire (~$200 per).

If you don’t want to be tied down to your bank or credit union, don’t use online billpay, set-up automatic payments or have any direct deposits. But if you’re like the rest of us, before you jump at the $100 offer, make sure the bank is convenient and that the checking account you’re opening includes all the features you’ll need.

You can check out FindABetterBank to compare features and fees for banks in your area.

So who’s watching (or not watching perhaps) these institutions? Banks and credit unions that offer consumers federally-insured checking accounts are regulated by different federal agencies. Each state also has a department that watches over the banks in their state. There are 3 primary federal agencies that regulate banks and credit unions. Within these agencies their are different “offices” or “departments” that oversee and regulate different aspects of the banks’ operations (their acronyms are long). Here are the 3 main agencies:

• Federal Reserve Board “The Fed” was founded in 1913 to provide stability to our financial system. They manage our government’s monetary policy, supervise and regulate banks and provide financial services to these banks – for example, clearing checks.
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The FDIC was founded by congress in 1933 to protect deposits. This was in response to thousands of bank closures in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. This independent federal agency insures deposits and regulates banks. The FDIC can take over a bank if they’re insolvent and either sell-off it assets or run the bank.
• National Credit Union Administration In 1934, the federal government passed the Federal Credit Union Act to facilitate the chartering of federal credit unions in every state. The purpose was to make credit available to individuals and promote individual savings. These institutions are not-for-profit and are managed as cooperatives. In the 1970’s the NCUA was formed and is backed of the full faith and credit of the U.S. government (just like FDIC-insured deposit accounts).