Monday, April 22, 2013

Tips for Choosing the Right Online Bank


It is quite tempting to make a move for online bank account in an era, where we turn to internet for almost everything. Today, a lot of people are turning away from land-based banks and moving towards banks, which are strictly doing their businesses online. These bank accounts provide you with a convenient method of managing your money from the relieving environment of your home. However, just in the search of convenience, you should not miss out on looking at certain aspects, before choosing an online bank. Since it is operating strictly online, you need to assure that you are getting associated with a reputed one and not just a random option functioning on the internet. Again, they should be offering you an irresistible deal as well.
Let us check some of the methods of identifying the right online bank:

APY (Annual Percentage Yield) is one of the factors, which almost all the banks compete on. They try to offer with the best available rate in the market to lure the attention of the customers. Therefore, it makes sense from your end to compare the figures of the best bank, before making up your mind to go for one.
Another thing, which you should look for, is the services that are on offer. You must ensure that your online bank is offering you with everything, which you need from your financial institution. Some of the important services, which is a must for them to have, include online transfer to other bank accounts, online payments to utility bills or scope of opening Certificate of Deposits (CD). You should consider all the services, which you might have been using at your current land-based bank and you might require the same sometime down the line.

You should also consider the fact that you are not going to see people face-to-face in an online bank. Thus, it is of primary importance to check their track record and how good have been to their customers. Again, it is a safer bet to open an account at a place, which has been in business for a length of time, rather than something, which has just opened up. You must have a comfort factor, while you are getting associated to a bank. If there are a lot of others having account in the same bank as your prospective option, it will serve you with a sense of security.

Following these methods, you can easily get associated to the right online bank and live a comfortable financial life.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Steven Lemma, the Ponzi Scheme Victim Who Established Portland’s Securus Payments


Who would have thought that a person scammed and lost all of his savings years ago would become one of the top young executives in Portland? Almost nobody did except for Steven Lemma – co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Securus Payments, the leading credit and debit processing payment services company in Portland.

Before Lemma became one of the sought-after young business leaders in Portland, he was just like any other American looking for ways to become a successful business owner or entrepreneur. However, the life and career story of Lemma was somewhat different from other successful executives of today. In an interview with the Portland Business Journal, he shared that before becoming an accomplished CEO, he had undergone several challenges. He revealed that he was duped in a Ponzi scheme; and after which, he decided to go to college to become a registered nurse. Lemma was not destined to become a registered nurse but a successful executive. Before finishing his nursing school, he was invited by his colleague Mychol Robirds to become partners in a business. Without even thinking twice, Lemma joined Robirds to establish Securus Payments – and the rest is history.

Presently, Securus is one of the most respected credit and debit payment processing services firms not only in Portland but in many parts of the country as well. In fact, the Portland Business Journal has named the company as the fastest-growing private companies. In addition to this recognition, the company’s CEO, Lemma, was likewise recognized as one of the top executives under the age of 40. These recognitions and citations have helped the company to further establish its solid reputation in the industry.

The company has helped many small, medium, and large companies since its establishment in 2009. It has been focusing on providing business ventures better methods in accepting credit and debit payments. Due to the company’s youthful, dynamic, and no non-sense management, it is able to cope with the demands of the ever-changing and challenging market. The wise and expert ideas of Lemma and the company’s key people, the firm is able to hold a solid stake in the industry.