Last week, Bank of America launched a new Bank of America Home Loans division, which is essentially a re-branded Countrywide. Along with the launch, however, the bank announced its ‘Clarity Commitment,’ intended to help consumers better understand the terms of the loan they are committing too. (here’s a press release about it)

While I definitely think this is a positive step forward, I’m skeptical about its execution. Banks are certainly not known for making things clear, especially when it comes to home loans. I envision this ‘Clarity Commitment’ document-which is a one-page overview including information like your interest rate, terms and “other details of the loan in plain language”-may still require some explanation from a bank representative, which sort of brings us back to square one. Click on the thumbnail to see a screen grab of the Clarity Commitment (from the site), which may reaffirm my point, as the actual language on the document is too light and small to make out. Hmmmm…

Nevertheless, banks thinking about making things clearer and easier for consumers is absolutely a good thing. Hopefully other banks will take a clue and start thinking about making things clearer and easier for consumers.

It might still be early, but if you’ve had experience with Bank of America Home Loans, why not write a review for others on SmartHippo?

We’ve launched a brand new site–however if you go to it, you probably won’t even notice. Most of the changes are behind the scenes, but doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be excited about them. For starters the site is running *much* faster, so if you’ve had any frustrations with it in the past few weeks, it’s all resolved now,

The big news though, is our rate engine. Previously when you searched rates on SmartHippo, you would see rates that were either posted by lenders who are members of the site, or just regular users who post what they were quoted. Now, in addition, we have the rates of over 200 lenders fed into our system, so you can be sure you’re going to find the best rates.

Check it out on SmartHippo, or view the news release for more info.

There’s a lot of great info on the web about personal finance, but sorting through all the clutter is a daunting task if you don’t know where to start. Unfortunately many of the experts out there are so immersed in what they do they may use terms or acronyms that, if you’re just starting out, can read like jibberish.

That’s why I was really excited when the Wall Street Journal came out with a series of How-to personal finance guides that cover pretty much everything in personal finance. Each one offers a plain English explanation of everything from ‘What is a 401 (k)‘ to how much you should spend on a home and everything in between.

Does that mean you should go buy a new house? Or refinance your existing mortgage? Before you do anything, be sure to read these hand-picked articles first!

• Refinance breakeven & 4.5% fixed mortgages on Blueprint for Prosperity blog
• Ken Stone has some thoughts on the current market and whether you should hold out for lower rates…
• If you’re thinking about buying for the first time, you may want mortgage rates briefly explained.
• The Illinois Mortgage Blog has some answers to frequently asked mortgage questions, which may answer some of your own questions.

This is potentially a very exciting time for real estate, but please remember, if you can’t afford it, stay away!

Oh and if you *do* decide to refinance, don’t forget to compare on SmartHippo first! : )

Tough economic times means we all need to spend a little smarter. However, if you’ve just realized you may be a little clueless when it comes to managing your money-don’t worry, you’re not alone!

Fortunately the net is filled with killer resources for helping you manage your money better, from blogs to communities to apps–and you might even have a little fun while you’re at it! Here’s some of my favorite resources, please add yours in the comments!

Mortgages/Loans blogs

• Blown Mortgage
• Economic life and loan information
• Straight Talk About Mortgages

General/personal finance blogs

• Consumerism Commentary
• Everybody loves your money
• Get Rich Slowly
• Free Money Finance
• No Credit Needed
• The Wallet by the Wall Street Journal

Apps

• SmartHippo.com – Save money on your mortgage with the power of community
• Mint.com – the leading personal finance management solution
• WeSeed – learn how the stock market works with pretend investing

Communities

• Banktastic – Network and share news and questions with others interested in finance
• Tip’d – is a social news sharing site like Digg, but specifically for financial and business news

Twitter

Here are some interesting people in the finance industry on Twitter (NB-there are tons more, this is just a random sampling!).

• @tylerosby
• @tvanderwell
• @Alex_Stenback
• @myCMPS
• And of course, don’t forget to follow @smarthippo!

I’ve been reading a lot lately… so when I find interesting patterns of news, I’ll post ‘em here… Today is all about Fintech companies in the news.

ING Direct has been talked about lately, yesterday about how online banks can offer lower mortgage rates and today about its ‘we the savers’ microsite.

Meanwhile, E-loan is exiting the mortgage business after posting an $87.4-million net loss in the third quarter. More details…

Intuit wins Forrester’s Groundswell award for company transformation. My observation as a social media person entering the financial industry is that in some respects it’s lagging other industries, therefore it’s refreshing to see a company like Intuit winning this type of award. More… (bottom of the page)

And in other news…
The Wall Street Journal reports that ‘Economists predict home prices will bottom next year.’ Yikes! Another year of this…

Yesterday I attended Finovate 2008 and it was inspiring for anyone who’s been following the financial news lately. With all the talk of meltdowns and big companies going under and being bailed out, it was a refreshing change of pace to see all these start ups with exciting ideas and energy about how to change finance industry.

SmartHippo CEO George Favvas was among the 24 presenters of a 7 min. demo. George previewed some new features which will make their way to the SmartHippo web site later this month, and also took a minute to address the financial crisis and the role companies like SmartHippo can take in changing the financial industry to avoid future meltdowns.  While he was the only presenter to overtly address the crisis, it was definitely an underlying theme and pressing topic at the event.

If you missed the show, the Banktastic blog did excellent coverage of the show, from reviews of the demos to interviews with the presenters, oh don’t forget to check out the interview with George…

Oh yea, if you were following SmartHippo on twitter, you would have had access to my live coverage of the event.

UPDATE:

Here’s some more coverage of Finovate:

• The Consumerist did a fantastic summary of the presenting companies, including SmartHippo, in this post…
• If you missed the conference, organizer NetBanker also did a series of posts about each of the presenters.