Regions Bank Fined $7.5 Million for Illegal Overdraft Fees

Regions Bank has been fined $7.5 million for what federal regulators say were illegal overdraft protection fees it charged customers without first asking whether they wanted the potentially pricey service.

Hundreds of thousands of customers paid more than $49 million in what the federal Consumer Finance Protection Bureau called illegal fees to Regions, which is one of the nation’s biggest banks with more than 1,700 branch locations.

“We take the issue of overdraft fees very seriously and will be vigilant about making sure that consumers receive the protections they deserve,” CFPB director Richard Cordray said Tuesday in a written statement.

Regions also charged overdraft and insufficient funds fees on its deposit-advance product, despite saying that it would not do so, according to the bureau.

According to the bureau, Regions Bank charged overdraft fees of up to $36. Patrons who had both checking and savings accounts would have those accounts linked and, without prior approval, the bank would transfer fees from savings to checking to cover overdrafts, charging a fee for doing so.

Once considered an occasional helper, overdraft protection has become a big money-maker for banks in recent years with the rise of frequent debit card usage. Instead of attempting to use a card once on an overdrawn account and being denied — paying a single insufficient funds fee — card users now can rack up one overdraft fee after another by continuing to use a card for an account they don’t realize is overdrawn.

In 2010, federal rules took effect that prohibited banks and credit unions from charging overdraft fees on ATM and one-time debit card transactions unless consumers had opted-in for that service. If consumers don’t opt-in, banks may decline the transaction, but not charge a fee.

Regions Bank already has begun refunding the roughly $49 million, according to the bureau. The company also says it no longer offers Ready Advance, its deposit advance product.

“After discovering that a small subset of customers had been charged fees in error, we reported it to the CFPB and began refunding the fees,” Regions Bank spokeswoman Evelyn Mitchell said in an email statement. “We believe the vast majority of the refunds have been completed and we have made changes to our internal systems to resolve these matters.”

The bureau said the bank could have faced a stiffer fine than the $7.5 million, but that it was given credit for reimbursing customers and self-reporting the issues once they were brought to the attention of senior management.

Tuesday’s announcement marked the first time the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau has taken action against a bank since a new law in 2010 gave the bureau the legal authority to sanction banks that engage in unfair, deceptive or abusive practices.

Doug Gross is a staff writer covering personal finance for NerdWallet. Follow him on Twitter @doug_gross and on Google+.

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How to Find Temporary Housing in San Francisco

You’ve lined up a new job, booked your flight and packed your suitcases, and you’re ready to move to the city of your dreams. But what if you still haven’t landed that perfect first apartment in San Francisco? Your employer might have included temporary housing as part of a relocation package, if you got one. If not, consider finding a short-term place to crash while you search for a long-term home.

A good place to start is with word-of-mouth, or on social media: Maybe a friend or fellow alumnus who lives in San Francisco needs a short-term roommate. Craigslist’s “sublets/temporary” listings are another old favorite, and don’t forget to check posts in the “rooms & shares” section, too. Even though it’s usually for longer-term renters, people who post there might be willing to take on a roommate for a month or two.

Airbnb

Newer on the scene than Craigslist, but already a favorite among globetrotters, Airbnb is also a good option for people on the hunt for short-term rentals in their home cities. You’ll get the chance to live like a San Franciscan as you settle into your new life. And if you stay in a shared apartment, you might also meet people to explore the city with.

Airbnb users can rent rooms or entire apartments for a period of weeks or months, if the owner of the apartment (or host, in Airbnb-speak) is open to it. When you search for available places on the website, keep an eye out for weekly or monthly costs listed in the “Prices” section of an apartment’s profile.

Vacation rentals

Beyond Airbnb, there are plenty of other websites for new residents looking for homey accommodations instead of traditional hotels. HomeAway and VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner) are popular, and you can use Tripping.com to search listings from multiple vacation rental sites, the way Kayak works for airlines. HomeAway lets you send a message to the host before officially requesting to book, so you can check if your length of stay fits with the homeowner’s schedule.

As is true with any online service, take care not to share personal information, like your credit card or Social Security number, before communicating with the host directly. You might not be able to view the apartment in person before you get to San Francisco, but it’s a good idea to verify that you’ll get what you paid for once you arrive.

Student and corporate housing

Open to more of a hotel feel? Check out corporate or student housing. San Francisco is a major business destination, so there are lots of places for out-of-towners to stay if they’re working in the city for longer than a few nights. Similar options exist for interns and students spending a semester in San Francisco.

Companies like Latitude 48 Housing Services lease private or shared rooms in apartment buildings and townhouses, with utilities and furnishings included. You’ll pay $550 a month for a bed in a shared room at the company’s 1080 Folsom St. building in the centrally located South of Market neighborhood, and a private room there costs $1,150. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the same neighborhood is $3,359 a month, according to an August 2014 study by Priceonomics.

Extended-stay hotels like Execustay and Extended Stay America offer more traditional hotel rooms at weekly rates. Their rooms often include full kitchens, and you can generally snag one in San Francisco for under $200 a night.

Communal living spaces

If you’re heading to San Francisco to work in tech — or you’re interested in learning more about it — look into tech-savvy communes. Companies like Campus run properties where like-minded San Franciscans live communally, without some of the inconveniences of roommate living. Campus screens applicants, provides all kitchen and household supplies and makes sure the house is cleaned each week.

The commitment is month-to-month, so you’re not locked in to a lease, and you have the option to stay only until you find a permanent place. Rooms can range from $1,070 for a 105-square-foot room in a shared house in Bernal Heights to $3,010 for a bigger, top-floor room in a house in Diamond Heights. In Campus’ case, only the common areas are furnished, so you could be on the hook for bedroom furniture. And there’s a pretty extensive application process, including an open house to meet your potential roommates, so it’s a more labor-intensive way to find temporary housing in San Francisco.

What’s next?

Think about how important it is for you to meet new people while you’re living in a temporary place. Communal living or a shared room from Craigslist or Airbnb can be good choices if you want to make friends in your new city. Otherwise, a short-term rental in a one-bedroom vacation home or in corporate housing will do the trick. Once you have a place to crash, you’ll be on your way to finding a long-term space to call home.

Brianna McGurran is a staff writer covering education and life after college for NerdWallet. Follow her on Twitter.

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Pop Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of Personal Finance

Many people would rather go to a dentist than dive into a review of their personal finances. But learning some simple financial concepts can save you a lot of money — and this quick quiz may teach you some things that you didn’t know.

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What You Need to Know About Owning a Car in San Francisco

Once you decide to make the big move to San Francisco, it’s time to figure out what you’ll bring with you. A car is one of the biggest and priciest items that might accompany you on your adventure. A set of wheels means freedom and a potentially shorter commute, but it could also mean steeper monthly costs — and the headaches of maneuvering it around a crowded city.

So, do you need a car in San Francisco?

Owning a car in San Francisco is great for:

Getting your weekend warrior on

One of the big draws of living in San Francisco is the number of great local getaways. The breathtaking redwoods of Muir Woods are just 20 minutes from the Golden Gate Bridge. Stinson Beach, just past the woods on scenic Highway 1, is another easy day trip. Drive an hour farther north and you’re wine tasting in Napa Valley. Or head 90 minutes south of the city to check out the laid-back, beachy college town of Santa Cruz.

There’s plenty to do in San Francisco, but your weekend trip options will multiply if you own a car.

Living free of BART constraints

San Francisco is full of public transportation options. The MUNI system includes buses, streetcars and San Francisco’s famous cable cars; the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway system runs through the city and connects San Francisco with cities east across the bay and south, on the Peninsula. The commuter rail, Caltrain, also runs south to Palo Alto and San Jose.

While public transportation will get you to and from work, it’s not ideal for late nights or weekends. The last trains leave the San Francisco Caltrain and BART stations a little after midnight every day, and most buses stop running between midnight and 1 a.m. That schedule can be especially trying if you live in Oakland or Berkeley, where it’s expensive to take cabs late at night.

Having a car in San Francisco will free you from relying on public transportation — but remember to designate a driver if you’re out partying.

Owning a car in San Francisco isn’t so great for:

Keeping costs down

A car might be useful in San Francisco, but it can also be expensive.

“I personally don’t see that many problems with it, other than the negatives of having a car anywhere — which is just that it costs money,” says Eric Temkin, 20, who grew up in the Outer Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco and is now a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

There’s the cost of the car itself to consider if you don’t already own one, plus gas, repairs, insurance and routine maintenance. It costs an average of $8,876 a year to drive a sedan like a Honda Civic or a Toyota Camry, according to a May 2014 study by travel organization AAA. Car insurance in San Francisco alone ranges from $1,260 a year to $2,856 a year for a 22-year-old, according to NerdWallet’s car insurance comparison tool.

Make sure these potential costs fit your budget, taking into account how much you pay for rent, utility bills and student loan payments. There are also plenty of ways to lower the cost of owning a car.

Take advantage of your warranty to get free repairs and search online for coupons before getting a routine checkup at a repair shop. Do your research and compare car insurance rates before you buy. If you don’t plan on driving all that much, consider pay-as-you-drive or per-mile car insurance, like Metromile.

Avoiding parking nightmares

San Francisco is the third-worst city to find parking behind Chicago and nearby Oakland, NerdWallet found in a 2014 study. Time limits, street sweeping and tow-away zones during commute hours all make parking one of the biggest headaches of owning a car in San Francisco.

Steer clear of tickets by reading up on San Francisco’s parking laws. Apps like BestParking can help you find the cheapest rates for parking lots and garages. If you live in certain neighborhoods, you can get a residential street parking permit for $110 a year, which means you can park in one spot for up to 72 hours no matter what the posted time limit is.

Some apartment complexes also include an optional parking spot as part of residents’ monthly rent, but it can get pricey. A spot check of available options in San Francisco showed prices ranging from $225 to $400 a month for an assigned space.

What’s next?

If you decide to drive your own car in San Francisco, consider saving a certain amount each month for a rainy-day fund, which could help pay for unforeseen auto repairs in the future.

Planning to go car-less? Lyft and Uber are many residents’ go-to for cabs when public transportation won’t cut it. For errands or trips around town, use a car-sharing program like ZipCar, City CarShare or Getaround. Whether you decide to use your own wheels or not, you’ll find plenty of ways to get around San Francisco and make the most of your new city.

Brianna McGurran is a staff writer covering education and life after college for NerdWallet. Follow her on Twitter.

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Best Buy Joins the Apple Pay Movement

Add Best Buy to the list of retailers helping Apple Pay become the first mobile-payments system to catch on at cash registers in the United States.

The electronics retailer, with more than 1,400 stores in the United States and 200 more in Canada and Mexico, has announced that Apple’s card-free payment tool is now accepted on the Best Buy mobile app.

All U.S. brick-and-mortar Best Buys will begin accepting Apple Pay later this year.

“Today’s consumers have many different ways to spend their money and we want to give our customers as many options as possible in how they pay for goods and services at Best Buy,” the company said in a news release.

Looking to keep up with the wave of competition from online retailers, Best Buy plans to open a technology-innovation office in Seattle this summer “and will continue to implement new tools to enhance the customer experience in this important growth area,” the company said.

In addition to enabling one-touch payments through retailers’ apps, Apple Pay uses near-field communication technology, which lets users pay by simply waving their iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch near a sensor on a cash register outfitted to use the system.

With the announcement, Best Buy joins other major retailers like Bloomingdale’s, Disney, Macy’s, McDonald’s, Whole Foods and Walgreen’s. Companies that also plan to add Apple Pay support include Carmike Cinemas, Marriott, Regal Cinemas and T-Mobile, according to Apple’s website.

On Monday, Discover announced that its cards will begin working with Apple Pay this fall. Discover joins MasterCard, Visa and American Express in becoming Apple Pay-capable, meaning that all four of the major credit card networks in the United States will accept Apple’s payment system.

Launched in October, Apple Pay has an estimated 12 million-plus users — although nearly half tell researchers they’ve only used Apple Pay once, and many have encountered some difficulties finding places where it is accepted.

Growing pains aside, the adoption rate is impressive in the United States, where cardless payments systems have thus far failed to catch on at the same rate they have in parts of Asia and in other countries.

Google, which pushed into the space first, with limited success, with Google Wallet, reportedly is working on a new response to Apple’s success called Android Pay.

Doug Gross is a staff writer covering personal finance for NerdWallet. Follow him on Twitter @doug_gross and on Google+.

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Amazon Launching New Business-Sales Site

Small business owners will be getting a new outlet to buy supplies online, courtesy of Amazon.

Amazon Business, a shopping site tailored to business owners, is set to roll out next month, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The site will require a business license to use and will replace the existing Amazon Supply in mid-May, a company vice president, Prentis Wilson, told the Journal.

Amazon Business will specialize in the type of equipment most businesses now turn to catalogues or specialty sites to purchase. But, according to the report, it also will offer items like business supplies and computer accessories at discounted rates.

The Journal quoted two examples: a Belkin iPad air case for $23.81, compared with $29.81 on Amazon.com, and a Fellowes adjustable keyboard tray at $191.43, compared to $209.82.

Wilson said the site will feature “hundreds of millions” of items. Among them will be business-specific and industrial pieces that may not generate much interest on Amazon’s main shopping site.

In other ways, the Journal reported, Amazon Business will behave much like Amazon itself. Members of Amazon Prime still will receive free two-day shipping on items from the site.

The site will be initially available only in the United States, Wilson told the paper.

Doug Gross is a staff writer covering personal finance for NerdWallet. Follow him on Twitter @doug_gross and on Google+.

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Time is Money: Why the Gender Time Gap Matters in America

It’s been called the “chore gap” — the difference in the way men and women apply that most finite of resources, time, to household work. The data show that the gap is real, and NerdWallet wanted to learn how it plays out across income groups.

We analyzed over 62 million data points from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey and discovered stark differences, across all income groups, in how women and men use their time. This finding has implications for financial security and quality of life.

After all, time is money.

Key findings

Income matters, but less than you might think. Compared with men at the same income level, women in higher income brackets spend less time than women with lower incomes doing food preparation and cleaning. However, women in the top 20% of earners still spend 137.6% more time cleaning and 78.5% more time preparing food than men in the same income bracket. For women, that means 30.9 minutes daily on cleaning (vs. 13.0 minutes for men) and 29.2 minutes daily preparing food (vs. 16.3 minutes for men).

We aren’t that progressive and it could be costly. The average American still follows traditional gender roles. Men with jobs spend 115.8% more time on yard work compared with working women, who devote 168.6% more of their time to cleaning up the kitchen. Allowing tradition to dictate how we allocate chores and time could be leading to inefficient allocations of labor and costing the U.S. economy.

Weekends, the great equalizer? During the week, women spend, on average, 199.7% more of their time caring for children than their male counterparts. The difference drops to 125.5% on the weekends, not the equal share that might be expected when 9-to-5 schedules are out of the picture. Similar patterns hold for time spent on cleaning, laundry, food preparation and grocery shopping.

 

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Time and opportunity cost

We talk about gross domestic product as a measure of a nation’s economic activity, but economists have increasingly recognized that this overlooks the unpaid labor that makes a society function. Attempts to measure this “non-market household production” in dollars show that it would have added as much as 26% to nominal GDP in 2010, although the amount of this kind of work has been declining as more women enter the workforce.

However, traditional divisions of household labor seem to hold sway even for working women. To understand the potential financial impacts of men and women spending their time in different ways, the economic notion of “opportunity cost” is instructive. When faced with a choice, the opportunity cost is equal to the value of the other option. For example, if we spend time doing laundry, say for an hour, we give up working for a wage for that hour. In this way, the opportunity cost of doing our laundry is an hour’s salary.

To illustrate these opportunity costs, it helps to put the time spent on household work in dollar terms. In NerdWallet’s analysis, women in the top 20% of earners make an average $38.72 an hour. At that rate, the time these women spend on “inside cleaning” is equal to $139.60 a week, and the time spent on “food and drink prep” is worth $131.89 each week. The idea of opportunity cost helps us value our time, making it easy to see why spending more time on household chores has an impact on our ability to earn. When women spend more time on chores than their male counterparts, they are missing out on potential earnings.

But no one can work all the time — and there will always be housework. Does opportunity cost come into play? Indeed it should, as women can choose to delegate housework to paid providers and instead spend their time either earning money or enjoying leisure activities. The numbers indicate that may be happening, as the amount of time women spend on household work declines when income rises.

Where our time goes

For high-income Americans, the top 20% of earners surveyed, here’s how time is used differently by women and men:

Activity	Minutes per day for women	Cost per day for women	Minutes per day for men	Cost per day for men	% that women do more of this activity
Laundry	15.29	$9.87	4.86	$3.01	214.30%
Telephone to and from family	3.21	$2.07	1.18	$0.73	172.85%
Inside cleaning	30.90	$19.94	13.00	$8.05	137.67%
Kitchen and food clean up	8.40	$5.42	3.94	$2.44	113.08%
Food and drink prep	29.20	$18.84	16.36	$10.13	78.48%
Grocery shopping	9.27	$5.98	5.33	$3.30	74.04%
Shopping	23.94	$15.45	15.69	$9.71	52.60%
Care for children in the house	17.41	$11.24	11.43	$7.08	52.33%
Grooming	48.53	$31.32	33.89	$20.98	43.18%
Reading for personal interest	24.82	$16.02	18.08	$11.19	37.30%
Household and personal organization and planning	8.45	$5.46	6.28	$3.89	34.64%
Homework help	2.74	$1.77	2.09	$1.30	30.97%
Socializing and communicating	35.06	$22.62	32.24	$19.96	8.72%
Sleep	496.97	$320.72	487.28	$301.69	1.99%
Attending or hosting parties	7.72	$4.98	7.59	$4.70	1.74%
Eating and drinking	70.34	$45.39	76.39	$47.30	-7.93%
Financial management	2.85	$1.84	3.17	$1.96	-10.09%
Relaxing and thinking	9.05	$5.84	10.22	$6.33	-11.44%
Playing games	4.78	$3.09	6.06	$3.75	-21.05%
TV and movies	98.75	$63.73	130.28	$80.66	-24.20%
Tobacco and drug use	0.11	$0.07	0.15	$0.09	-30.23%
Sports and recreation	16.77	$10.83	24.39	$15.10	-31.22%
Computer for leisure	6.92	$4.46	10.51	$6.50	-34.17%
Yard work	7.89	$5.09	18.02	$11.16	-56.24%
Interior arrangement, decoration and repair	3.59	$2.32	8.29	$5.13	-56.69%

 

For middle-income Americans, the middle 20% of earners surveyed, here’s how time is used differently by women and men:

Activity	Minutes per day for women	Cost per day for women	Minutes per day for men	Cost per day for men	% that women do more of this activity
Laundry	19.30	$5.34	5.62	$1.45	243.26%
Kitchen and food clean up	8.85	$2.45	2.84	$0.73	211.82%
Inside cleaning	31.26	$8.64	12.73	$3.28	145.64%
Telephone to and from family	2.75	$0.76	1.13	$0.29	143.13%
Homework help	2.69	$0.74	1.11	$0.29	142.07%
Care for children in the house	15.04	$4.16	7.07	$1.82	112.66%
Food and drink prep	27.45	$7.59	15.41	$3.97	78.18%
Reading for personal interest	17.89	$4.95	10.48	$2.70	70.78%
Grocery shopping	8.22	$2.27	4.82	$1.24	70.65%
Financial management	1.78	$0.49	1.08	$0.28	64.55%
Grooming	50.54	$13.97	34.04	$8.77	48.47%
Shopping	22.10	$6.11	15.06	$3.88	46.76%
Household and personal organization and planning	6.30	$1.74	4.47	$1.15	41.01%
Attending or hosting parties	7.05	$1.95	5.66	$1.46	24.48%
Socializing and communicating	39.11	$10.81	37.54	$9.68	4.18%
Sleep	510.91	$141.26	504.85	$130.12	1.20%
Tobacco and drug use	0.46	$0.13	0.48	$0.12	-5.35%
Eating and drinking	62.96	$17.41	67.32	$17.35	-6.48%
Interior arrangement, decoration and repair	3.83	$1.06	4.62	$1.19	-17.03%
Computer for leisure	6.61	$1.83	8.73	$2.25	-24.33%
TV and movies	120.14	$33.22	164.01	$42.27	-26.75%
Relaxing and thinking	11.42	$3.16	16.13	$4.16	-29.17%
Playing games	5.44	$1.50	8.82	$2.27	-38.34%
Sports and recreation	10.82	$2.99	19.42	$5.00	-44.29%
Yard work	7.08	$1.96	15.18	$3.91	-53.37%

 

For low-income Americans, the bottom 20% of earners surveyed, here’s how time is used differently by women and men:

Activity	Minutes per day for women	Cost per day for women	Minutes per day for men	Cost per day for men	% that women do more of this activity
Care for children in the house	15.80	$2.11	2.48	$0.31	536.26%
Kitchen and food clean up	9.60	$1.28	2.13	$0.27	349.81%
Homework help	2.61	$0.35	0.59	$0.07	339.06%
Laundry	16.79	$2.24	4.08	$0.51	311.86%
Telephone to and from family	2.84	$0.38	0.86	$0.11	231.51%
Inside cleaning	33.81	$4.51	10.81	$1.34	212.72%
Food and drink prep	31.68	$4.22	10.56	$1.31	200.02%
Grocery shopping	7.79	$1.04	3.88	$0.48	100.53%
Financial management	1.53	$0.20	0.86	$0.11	79.24%
Shopping	20.22	$2.69	12.31	$1.53	64.29%
Household, personal organization and planning	6.12	$0.82	3.87	$0.48	58.34%
Attending or hosting parties	6.62	$0.88	4.48	$0.56	47.65%
Grooming	49.24	$6.56	34.64	$4.30	42.14%
Reading for personal interest	16.09	$2.14	12.77	$1.59	26.02%
Socializing and communicating	45.22	$6.03	41.39	$5.14	9.25%
Eating and drinking	59.49	$7.93	60.27	$7.49	-1.29%
Sleep	528.96	$70.49	538.48	$66.88	-1.77%
Relaxing and thinking	14.85	$1.98	16.69	$2.07	-11.01%
Interior arrangement, decoration and repair	2.55	$0.34	3.03	$0.38	-15.82%
TV and movies	135.02	$17.99	169.13	$21.01	-20.17%
Tobacco and drug use	0.47	$0.06	0.69	$0.09	-32.01%
Yard work	6.28	$0.84	10.27	$1.28	-38.82%
Computer for leisure	7.13	$0.95	11.96	$1.49	-40.41%
Sports and recreation	11.35	$1.51	25.58	$3.18	-55.62%
Playing games	7.19	$0.96	21.35	$2.65	-66.34%

 

Methodology

The Bureau of Labor Statistics sponsors the American Time Use Survey, which since January 2003 has collected responses from over 130,000 people on how they use their time. The study asks Americans to account for all of their time in a single day, including sleep, work and personal activities. Using this detailed data from 2003 to 2012, NerdWallet sought to understand differences between how women and men use their time.

We organized the data into subsets that included day, employment status, labor force status and income bracket. The groups were divided by gender, and a new data frame was created with the mean of each newly created group’s weekly income and time spent per day on all activities recorded by the survey. Next, we compared the average time spent on a particular activity between groups, ultimately finding the percentage change between women and men who shared other characteristics, such as employment status and income.

To determine the cost to a particular group for time spent on an activity, the mean income of the group was divided by the group’s mean hours worked to produce a mean hourly wage. Then, the hourly wage was multiplied by the number of hours spent on a given activity to assess the cost of performing the activity.

It is important to note that while we can say the average woman spends more time on a given activity than men who were surveyed, we cannot make the connection that being female is the cause of the differences in time allocation. There likely are variables that aren’t included that are correlated with being female that amplify or minimize the effect of gender on time use.

We assume all utility, both positive and negative, a group might gain from an activity. This assumption is made to place a monetary cost on activities. Given that the goal of this study is to compare women and men, this assumption is stronger if we also assume that women and men get the same utility from a given activity.

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