Predatory lending exists in the mortgage industry. It’s typically when a mortgage broker add’s on unnecessary fee’s to a bad credit application, because he or she knows that the applicant is in a desperate situation.

Predatory banking can also exist for those who have ended up in the ChexSystems.

ChexSystems is a network of financial institutions (mainly banks) that regularly contribute information about account holders that mishandle their checking or savings accounts. Nearly all banks within the US are a part of this consortium.

Bounce a check, and not pay it off in a timely manner, and you could end up in the ChexSystems. Even if you receive a bogus check, and the bank suspects foul play, you could land in the ChexSystems hot seat.

And the sentence for this financial felony isn’t light.

If the bank that put you in the ChexSystems refuses to release your name from the ChexSystems database, you’ll find it close to impossible to obtain a bank account of any sort for 5 years.

Even if you pay off the offending debt, the bank could still hold you a ChexSystems prisoner. Wicked, but 100% true.

So naturally when you have a situation where people are stuck between a rock and a hard place, the vultures come out to feed. This is what you may encounter if you’re looking for a non ChexSystems bank account.

Before you pay money to any service that claims to give you a non ChexSystems bank account be sure it passes the following tests with flying colors.

1) Make sure the bank is FDIC insured.

According to the FDIC web site:

“The FDIC – short for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – is an independent agency of the United States government. The FDIC protects you against the loss of your deposits if an FDIC - insured bank or savings association fails. FDIC insurance is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.”

In a nutshell, if you decide to open a bank account with an institution that isn’t FDIC insured, you could basically lose all of your money if that institution goes out of business. So it’s extremely important to verify the banks status before you open an account.

You can easily verify that a bank is FDIC insured at the FDIC web site.

2) If it’s a credit union, make sure it’s NCUSIF insured.

NCUSIF insurance is similar to FDIC insurance, except it’s for credit unions.

According to the National Credit Union Association web site:

“The shares in your credit union are insured by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), an arm of NCUA. Established by Congress in 1970 to insure member share accounts at federally insured credit unions, the NCUSIF is managed by NCUA under the direction of the three-person NCUA Board. Your share insurance is similar to the deposit insurance protection offered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).”

All credit unions that are NCUSIF insured can be found at (http://www.ncua.gov/indexdata.html).

3) Make sure the institution has a physical branch.

This is one of the easiest ways to weed out the bad seeds. Banks with physical branches are always legitimate financial institutions.

4) Do some background work on the bank.

Do a WHOIS search to view the registrant for the banks domain name. If it’s a single person, that should raise a red flag. It should always be the banks name or corporate name.

Look on the banks web site. There should be separate telephone and fax numbers, and a legitimate street address - not a PO box.

You can always call 411 to confirm that the telephone number matches the address listed. But also keep in mind that some banks have a central location where they answer general calls.

5) Make sure the bank DOESN’T require you to use direct deposit in order to open the account.

There are some financial services that offer checkless checking accounts. (This isn’t a scam as far as I can tell.)

But what if you don’t get direct deposit? Or what happens if you switch jobs, and no longer receive your checks through direct deposit? Then you’re basically back at square one.

And what if you want to use checks? I mean a checkless checking account kind of defeats the purpose of obtaining a checking account at all.

6) Make sure the institution doesn’t charge you for common items like monthly statements, telephone services, and withdrawls.

I recently noticed a financial service charging outrageous fee’s for options that are normally provided for free through regular banks and credit unions.

They were charging for everything but the kitchen sink, including: a fee to check your balance at the ATM, a fee to receive a monthly statement, a fee if you wanted to return something you purchased from a retail store, a fee for using their automated telephone service. And that was just the tip of the iceberg!

Even though you’re in the ChexSystems doesn’t mean you should play victim to financially draining ploys like these. There are always better alternatives waiting in the wings.

About the author:

Alexis Dawes is the author of “How To Get a Bank Account Even If You’re in the ChexSystem.” This report offers information on non chexsystems banks that will give you a checking account, even if you’re in the Chexsystems. Alexis has personally used all of the recommended banks. You can get more information at (http://www.GetCheckingNow.com).
 

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Our CIA needs to develop fold out WiFi Spy devices for the field, this will enable them to track international terrorists, hack into Blackberry Type portable devices and monitor computer surfing when an Internet Service Provider cannot be trusted, as in foreign operations. I believe we should hire the Defcon Convention Hackers who were able to receive a signal over 125 miles away without amplification to help us design a system which can easily fit into a small space for easy transport. The previous World Record for an un-amplified WiFi connection was just over 55-miles. To learn more as to how this is done go to this website:

http://www.wifi-shootout.com/

We know that the International Terrorists and insurgents use personal computers and when they travel they use Internet WiFi systems to send and receive and communicate with their cells. If we can track them and pick up their signals this will in fact give us clues to who they are talking with, what they are surfing for and perhaps the potential dates and places of their next targets against humanity. The Internet Hackers as bad as they are, seem to be able to provide us with their down and dirty prototypes and they assure us, underneath it all they are still Patriots at Heart.

http://wifi.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000407052562/

We can design a system based on their prototypes out of light-weight materials. Once this is done we can use NASA technologies for the unfolding of systems, similar to their Mars Lander deployments for fast and easy set-up in the field, thus enabling our CIA in-country assets to quickly deploy and fold-up these units for transport. Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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Biography

Born in Sydney and raised in Brisbane, Australia, Miranda Kerr kick-started her modeling career in her early teens. Spurred on by the encouragement of her family and friends, Miranda fortuitously decided to enter the Dolly/Impulse Modeling Competition in 1997 when she was just 13 years old. She shocked everyone, including herself, when she won the competition, but she was completely surprised by the backlash that immediately followed her appearance in the Australian teen magazine Dolly.

The media quickly turned Miranda Kerr’s winter-clothing pictorial into a debate regarding pedophilia and the acceptable age at which girls should start modeling. Nonetheless, Miranda gracefully handled the controversy and parlayed her newfound notoriety into a burgeoning career.

miranda kerr gets work as a model

Miranda Kerr spent the next several years working nonstop, appearing in advertisements for companies such as Levi’s and Baby Phat. She became a fixture within the pages of such illustrious publications as Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, and she built a reputation as one of the most reliable and hardworking models on the scene.

miranda kerr models for victoria’s secret

When she landed a coveted gig as one of the faces of Maybelline, Miranda Kerr’s profile was given a significant boost. Her star only continued to rise when she was chosen as the first Australian to model on the runway for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and when she appeared opposite Kanye West and Pharrell Williams in the music video for “Number One.”

miranda kerr is named no.19 in 2008 top 99

In 2007, Miranda Kerr became the face of fashion retailer Arden B. and Clinique Happy. She also made a small-screen appearance in the comedy How I Met Your Mother, and ranked at No. 19 on AskMen.com’s list of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2008.

askmen.com

Next generation wireless solution

WiMAX, the solution of choice for next generation broadband, is designed from its core to deliver large throughput with a variety of applications - IP connectivity, voice and video.  As both a reliable wireline replacement solution and next step to legacy mobile, it has the ability to support providers in offering first line (or first device) replacement, through product bundles or standalone services.  In today’s competitive telecommunications landscape, it has become imperative to deliver a total product portfolio on a broadband basis, even in markets where liberalization processes moved slower than in the leading economies.

The WiMAX technology, and more importantly the functionalities it provides, constitute the opportunity for service providers to cover all types of usage behavior, ranging from typical fix usage in captive locations to access while being on the move.  This unique attribute allows service providers to design product bundles including voice and compete not only with legacy incumbents and other wireline operators, but also have competitive offerings for users requiring different types of wireless freedom.  WiMAX as a data-centric technology is also going to meet expectations of the next generation of voice customers, who have positive mind set towards voice over IP and communicate using such devices like USB phones, laptops and other portable multimedia devices.  In fact starting from the year 2008, notebooks and gradually other consumer electronic devices will have WiMAX chips embedded in them and will become a perfect fit for all operators planning to roll-out networks of the 802.16 standard.

Support for new wave mobility

As an always-on technology, WiMAX is not only the solution of choice for instant internet access, but also well suited for permanent voice availability.  From the end-user device perspective, the voice connectivity is being assured based on a softphone-client solution residing as an application, like in a typical PC-based environment.  Current trends oriented towards unification of mobile telephony and computer devices result in new converged solutions for the mass market, called ultra-mobile PC.  These multimedia devices will have the ability not only to access various data networks, but also serve voice in a data-based environment.  This represents another fit with a wireless broadband network that can not only carry volume but is also capable to support seamless mobility.

The benefits for the customers seems therefore to be assured in the short as well as in the long term.  Not only are solutions being developed that bring services and advantages to existing alternatives, but the next-wave functionalities supporting more technology-oriented societies are rapidly coming to market.

Practical implementation

Voice over WiMAX has become already a real life experience and a viable business.  In Central and Eastern Europe, WiMAX Telecom, a leading WiMAX service provider, delivers voice services along with its broadband offering over its 802.16 network.   The service, branded WiMAX FON, is offered currently as a first line replacement solution, allowing customers to switch completely from the incumbent operator.  The service also offers number portability as an additional feature of the package.   On the technical level, the service is based on SIP protocol, with an end-to-end quality assurance.  This is secured due to the following environmental factors:

• full IP supervision within own network - there is no transmission through public Internet),
• no packet compression, allowing for superior sound quality outperforming on comparative level the abilities of mobile networks,
• voice traffic prioritization.

Both data and voice traffic are transmitted within the fully owned and managed IP network, that has MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching) implemented.  Furthermore in order to provide the necessary resources for the voice transmission quality, a vendor specific dynamic resource allocation protocol and IP ToS (Type of Service) within the MPLS network are also implemented.  The standard for audio companding applied in the network is G.711, which provides an 8 kHz sampling frequency and 64 kb/s bitrate.

For voice termination, the infrastructure is interconnected with a typical “anchor network”, which is usually the network of the incumbent, and also with wholesale operators which provide interconnectivity and termination services on an international level.  It is important to emphasize the portability feature, which is one of the key functionalities for customers switching from other networks, but insisting on having still the same telephone number.  The technical feasibility for this can be assured only when interconnected with the incumbent or an interconnect partner, that also provides portability outsourcing.

The competitiveness of the voice services is also enhanced thanks to additional on-top options.  One of the is the so called customer self-care, which enables customers to manage their broadband and voice services conveniently on-line and 24 hours a day, thus being not dependent from any call center or legacy type helpdesk.  From the voice service perspective the self-care system allows to obtain electronic invoices, analyze real-time billing, manage customer data, reroute incoming connections, etc.

The implementation of voice services in WiMAX networks has delivered numerous benefits for customers.  These include:

• possibility for a complete switch-off from incumbent operator,
• one voice and data package,
• no need for wireline infrastructure for all services,
• flexibility thanks to number portability (no need to change existing number),
• savings due to product bundle and lack of legacy copper wire subscription.

Many have questioned if the WiMAX technology and business case is ready for the future.  When looking at all the recent developments, both on the side of infrastructure, applications and services, it seems that the answer is clear.
by Michael Wolleben