Recently, I’ve been asked by a few people what my thoughts and opinions are on the fees that banks impose on their customers. Banking fees are an unneeded hassle. For a lot of people, they can be the difference between eating and going without food. There’s quite a few fees that banks impose to squeeze out every penny they can from people. I’ll be going over some of the ones that I’ve either encountered, or have enough knowledge about to post on.

Overdraft fees are probably the most widely known. This is a fee that a customer is charged because they ended up spending more money than was in their account. Now, my beef with this one is that banks should have a safety net for customers. I’m sure everyone’s aware of the magnet strip on the backside of your debit/credit card(s). This is used to identify your card, and is tracked in real-time. Now, if you take that into affect, a bank *should* be able to in fact track your purchases. Most purchases aren’t updated in your banking account until the transaction has been confirmed via the business you made the purchase at. If this were implemented, a cease could be sent if you try to make a purchase over your balance (The same way your credit cards do if you try to make a purchase over your spending limit). The average overdraft fee is $25 (United States) but, can run up to $40 depending on the financial institute you’re with.

Maintenance fees most likely come in second. This is a fee that is usually imposed if your balance is under a certain limit (determined by the bank). Honestly, you have to seriously ask – who the hell came up with this idea? Now, if my account isn’t at the predetermined balance set by my bank, how could it help to impose a fee? I know from reading that my bank imposes a $8 maintenance fee and a $35 overdraft fee. Here’s a dramatic example based on my banks fees. Say my bank account has $7.99 in it, and they decide to hit me with a maintenance fee. This would deduct $8, leaving me with a balance of negative 0.01. Now because of that, my account would then get an overdraft fee for $35, making my new balance negative $35.01. Could you imagine getting that, all because your account didn’t have the designated amount set by some six figure a year CEO…

The easiest way to avoid fees is to use the bank as little as possible. Some of you are probably saying “But all my money goes in there!”. My question to that is – why? I tell this to everyone I know, and anyone who asks me – If you only have a checking account (most people do these days), always make sure that you keep at least $50 in it at all times for emergencies. This should be your minimum balance, making sure that you won’t get a maintenance fee for not having the min balance limit. On top of the $50 you have, if you pay bills with checks, electronic payments or your debit card, make sure to have just enough to pay them. The rest can be kept in a home safe (You can get firesafe safe starting at $30 – a great investment), or a safe deposit box. If you’re into stocks, then put some into the stocks. Direct Deposit is a great invention, and I strongly suggest that you use it but, I also suggest that you withdraw what you’re not going to use on bills and put away outside of the bank.

Ya know, I was going to write an exorbitant post bashing BP but, I think we need to look at the people who have continued to allow this corrupt corporation to stay in business, continually harming the environment. Now, I’m no conservationist but, I do what I can to help and I do have a fucking problem when a company with subsidiaries that have felony charges in at least two states (Alaska and Texas) is allowed to continue to put us all in danger. The government is all about “Going Green” but, does this only apply to us, or should it in fact apply to large companies as well? Can you say fucking hypocritical?! I’m sick of hearing how the government wants me to go green, and then watch as they sit back and watch companies like BP kill our ecosystem.

Then you give them the okay to use a dispersant that’s been banned in another country, because it was scientifically found to have an adverse effect on the marine environment?! Give me a fucking break here… Hey, Lisa Jackson, I think I have some orange scrub some where around here to get the oil off your hands.

And Obama, oh man… Kick someones ass? That’s cereal business right there. You are not Clint Eastwood, and this isn’t Heartbreak Ridge. Your words aren’t worth shit. How about instead of “kicking someones ass” you actually take a corrupt business down? Oh no, that would mean losing a potential contributor – if they aren’t already… See, if you look at Mr. Barry Soetoro’s (Barack Obama) contributors for his presidential campaign, it seems he got quite a bit from investment banks, who in return received financial support after he was “elected”.

So, Obama – how do you manage to get the oil out of your suits?

Resources:
BP Cover up’s: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/06/12/plans-to-clean-up-the-oil-spill–dolphins-with-mops-aquaman-or-blame-the-french.aspx
Barack Obama Contributors: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=n00009638

In my last post, I told users that I am writing a calorie script – this includes a weight-loss/gain calculator, and the ability to track progress. However, I’m running into a snag, as there’s a lot of controversy surrounding the best way to calculate the needed daily calorie intake to hit your target weight in a set time period. The following are all formulas I’ve run across while researching this.

One More Bite:

Desired_Weight x ALM

Peer Trainer:

(Curr_Weight – 10) + (Height_Inch x 4.6) + (Age x 4.7) x ALM

(Wednesday, December 02, 2009, 9:37 AM) Peer Trainer:

Target_Weight x 10

(Thursday, March 30, 2006, 8:35 AM) Peer Trainer:

((Curr_Weight x 11) – Calorie_Min) x Target_Days = a

(Target_Loss_Gain x One_Pound[3500 calories]) – a / (Weekly_Work_Out x Target_Weeks)

BMI Calculator:

Curr_Calories / 20%

*ALM = Activity Level Multiplier

If anyone has other references, suggestions, or knows an accurate formula for weight-loss/gain, feel free to leave a comment below.

I came across a question on answers.yahoo that I felt was somewhat – unintelligent? It stated something along the lines of “Is it alright for me to put 1,000 ‘good’ calories in, and then burn 1,500 calories daily?”. Then I did a little searching, and realized that most individuals have absolutely no idea how many calories they should be putting into their body to make up for what the exert during any given day.

Here’s how calories work… Contrary to popular belief, there is no average based on normality ie. 2,000/daily. It ranges based on four aspects, which are age, height, weight and your exercise routine. I found a few websites that offer visitors to view their estimated daily calorie intake, but any that allow you to manage it so that a user can manage weight loss are all paid membership websites.

I’ve started writing a script that will allow individuals to do the above, free. Because, why should you have to pay cash to use something that you will be inputting all the numbers yourself? So as most of my scripts, this will be completely free, and completely open source for others to learn, share and modify as needed to fit your needs.

You can find the script in ZIP format at http://phux.org/downs/calories.script.06072010.v0.0.1[www.nitobelmont.com].zip.

You can also find the script in readable format in a post on the phux forums: http://forum.phux.org/index.php/topic,316.0.html

Feel free to leave suggestions, feedback or comments =)

Haven’t written a post in over a month. I’ve been working for a bit-torrent website as lead developer, as well as working on a past project (phuximg), which is a image hosting script designed mainly for torrents and gaming guilds. It’s ran around memberships, and teams, which sets it apart from most of the other image scripts, that only allow you to manage your own personal images – if at all. It will be Open Source – as most of my scripts are – and will be posted on SourceForge.net.