Personal Finance Advice and Commentary

Consumers can still make 2012 individual retirement account contributions through April 15.

Greg McBride, Bankrate’s senior financial analyst, appeared on KCBS Radio in San Francisco to discuss the state of the housing market.

Competition for online savings deposits is heating up — a turnaround for rates that have been declining.

Bankrate surveyed the 18 most widely issued prepaid cards, and all had at least one type of fee.

On Tuesday, I joined Oliver Pursche on the Money Matters Financial Network to talk about a key question on many Americans’ minds these days: What should I do with my tax refund? Here’s a condensed version of our conversation, in both written and spoken form. Greg: There are some important steps you can take to

Our January 2012 Financial Security Index came out today, and I spent some time discussing it with Tony Conley of WILS-AM in Lansing, Mich. Below is a transcript of the interview. Tony: Americans’ financial security rises again, this is according to some information at Bankrate.com. That’s good news – tell us about it. Greg: Yes, it is.

I recently appeared on the Fox Business Network to talk about my 2012 interest rate outlook. Here’s an edited transcript of my comments: Mortgages I think there’s a possibility that mortgage rates could move considerably lower early this year. It will be brief, but here’s the scenario under which I see that unfolding: If fears

In my weekly appearance with Gary Goldberg’s “Money Matters” radio program, we discussed Bankrate’s December Financial Security Index and related economic trends. Here’s a partial transcript of my comments: In December, we actually saw a nice uptick in consumers’ financial security. We’re ending the year on a higher note than we’ve seen in the past

In my weekly appearance with Gary Goldberg’s “Money Matters” radio program, we discussed the advantages of credit cards over debit cards for disciplined consumers. Here’s a partial transcript of my comments. Credit card rewards programs are more than twice as generous as debit rewards. And they’re growing, whereas we’ve seen a 30 percent decline in

Bankrate released the November 2011 Financial Security Index today, and we found some interesting trends for the holiday season. We found that 42 percent of Americans plan to spend less this holiday season (including 49 percent of parents), and only 10 percent plan to spend more. We also found that merely 13 percent of Americans feel better about their job