Folks losing homes dial 1-800; no one answers

• Many homeowners facing foreclosure say getting through to banks is nightmare.
• "After being on the phone with them, they send you to an automated lady."
• Lenders say they're overwhelmed by the amount of calls, doing all they can.
• Lawyer: "In the meantime, lenders are continuing to move forward with foreclosure."

The entire ordeal has been draining, especially trying to reach somebody at the bank. "You call them. After being on the phone with them, they send you to an automated lady. [Then] they send you to a Web site after you've been on the phone for an hour." Banks and lenders say that they have been overwhelmed with calls and that they're doing all they can to help ease the situation for Americans in distress.

Megan Cavallari waits on hold for more than an hour with her bank as she tries to save her home from foreclosure. Then she gets the "automated lady" -- again. It's happening to Americans time and again, with some put on hold for 2 ½ hours. "The waiting time is ridiculous," one attorney said. "They called 800 numbers that went into a black hole."

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Manage Your Money Online - For Free

Having read a post about ClearCheckbook on www.makeuseof.com, I decided to check it out. After spending about 5 minutes on the site (after a simple and free sign up maybe 2 minutes), I realized this was exactly the application I have been looking for the past several months. The best part about the application is you control everything manually. You have complete control over the accounts (Cash, Checking, Savings, and Credit) you set up along with the expense categories to assign. Additionally, ClearCheckbook provides up to date reports to view trends or charts of how and when your money is used. You can set up automatic recurring reminders to pay your monthly bills. Not that I will need this feature, but you can work in non US currencies.

I had previously been using my own version of this application in an Excel spreadsheet. One of the best features of this website is that you can access the data from any internet connection.

Staying on top of your finances, especially your expenses can be a great advantage to your overall financial status. Knowing where your money is coming from and where it is going is very important. For anyone that does manage your checkbook or would like to start, I would recommend at least taking a look at ClearCheckbook.

Here are just a few ways ClearCheckbook can help you stay on top of your finances:

• Balancing - Ability to balance your checkbook from anywhere you have internet access.
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Analysts: 150 U.S Banks Nationwide May Fail Next Year

As home prices continue to decline and loan defaults mount, U.S. regulators are bracing for dozens of American banks to fail over the next year. But after a large mortgage lender in California collapsed late Friday, Wall Street analysts began posing two crucial questions: Just how many banks might falter? And which one could be next?

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