I remember getting my first Visa Debit card back in the dark old days when I was winding down a money pit business that I'd held onto for WAY too long. I needed the card so I could verify my Paypal account in order to accept donations for a free site that was suddenly costing a lot of money.

I put down $10k as my income (which was a lie - I was heavily in debt), then the chick said that the minimum requirement was $15k, so I crossed it out and wrote in that (which was also a lie). :1orglaugh It was a chicken and egg situation since I had no revenue until I got that card. I was approved and went from there.....

La Caixa.
Anyways, any bank in Spain will do that for you... at least they do it for me :)

As an aside, peaches, IMHO you can't do much worse in the investment world if you go with Money Market funds. I believe they are a horrible value. Might want to consider other options - even T-Bills if you want low risk. :2 cents:

Can I get immediate access with T-bills? I use the MM to have liquid cash to grab distressed property (land - not houses). I need something I can get cash in hand in 3 or less business days. I looked at the "recent auction" page for T-bills and it LOOKS like my MM are paying higher. Am I missing something?

Thanks :)

Hey Peaches,

Sorry to be vague/misleading - I wouldn't reccomend purchasing T-Bills themselves, rather one of the big brokers' T-Bill funds. And in most cases, you can get cash-in-hand in 24-48 with most. That's if you are concerned about risk. In fact - most money market funds have significant portions of T-Bills as their holdings anyhow.

And for sure, you can find great rates in MM's with low MER's, I just have a real problem with Money Market funds- to me, they're a useful but horribly over-reccomended investment vehicle.

To conclude, I'd reccomend ignoring me completely, lol. I just lash out when I hear of people dumping fortunes into money market funds. Almost more than GIC's. I don't mean to assume you don't know what you're doing.

No, seriously, DO assume I don't know what I'm doing! 99/100 I don't when it comes to money :disgust

I'll spend some more time looking into it - thanks!! :)

The reason the big banks can offer you the 'guaranteed' or 'stable' vehicles like money market funds is because they are guaranteed to be making money off YOU.

Overall it depends on your age and comfort with risk. I always think of Guaranteed investments as you loaning the bank money at a GREAT rate.

They're glad to take it. For example, you're giving them money in a high interest savings account at ~4%. Then;

- They loan it out at 6% to low-risk clients.
- They re-invest and make 8-10% on some blue chips.
- Etc.

Stocks - I'm still writing off losses from 2002 - I panicked, sold and won't go down that road again (I still have some of the biggies - Coke, Limited Brands, J&J, Southern Company but I'll probably still have those when I die).

Most of my investing has been in property which is why I like keeping a decent amount of $$$ I can grab quickly if needed.

I've also done some high risk, high return P2P lending but that didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to. I haven't LOST money, but the returns were about what I was making in a MM and they are tied up for 36 months after the loan is processed. :mad:

At times I think it would be easier on mental health just to bury it in the yard. :winkwink:

banks aren't that dumb. most will have you sign Form 4506 (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506.pdf), which sends your tax return directly to the bank from the IRS.