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You are probably knee-deep in festivities considering its already 4th of July weekend, and the MyBankTracker.com team just wanted to write to wish you a very happy holiday! We also wanted to throw out a few financial tips to keep in mind while celebrating.

Fourth of July is a great holiday, not only do you get the day off, but this holiday is pretty budget friendly. Recently the AAA released figures showing that many Americans are opting for the staycation this independence day and with the price of gas prices it is easy to see why.

So if you have decided to stick around but still want an awesome Fourth of July here are a few budget saving ideas:

No matter where you live, rural town or large city there is bound to be a parade nearby. This is a great opportunity for free entertainment while spending time with your family and friends.

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There are a host of financial institutions offering commercial mortgage loans, all with varying terms and rates. Though there is such a large pool of information and opportunity available to the borrower in need, it can often be difficult to determine where the starting point is when youre ready to apply for a commercial mortgage loan.

Before you commit your time to preparing for and meeting with a lender, save yourself some trouble and find affordable commercial mortgage rates ahead of time. The easiest way to research mortgage loan interest rates is to find them online.

Shopping for Commercial Mortgage Rates Online

There are many websites that makes the research process much simpler and helps you to navigate the world of finance easily.

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With high marks for food, service, value and speed, In-N-Out Burger topped the burger chart in Consumer Reports’ first-ever major ratings of fast food restaurants. McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s all ranked lower.

Consumer Reports readers made over 98,000 visits to 53 fast food chains, and found that Burger King, KFC, McDonalds and Taco Bell offered uninspiring food and so-so service.

While In-N-Out Burger was the top-ranked burger chain, other restaurants also did well in their categories. Chick-fil-A topped KFC and all other chicken chains, with high scores for food, value, speed, and the politeness of its staff. Chipotle Mexican Grill beat out 8 other Mexican food chains, including Taco Bell .

Many restaurants scored higher for service than they did for food. At chains with the highest rankings, 42 to 54 percent of customers called the food excellent, but at Burger King, KFC, McDonalds, and Taco Bell, no more than 11 percent did.

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Interest rates should be lifted to 1pc by the end of the year from their current band of between 0pc and 0.25pc, according to the latest semi-annual outlook from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Doing so would avoid the Federal Reserve having to raise rates more quickly later to counter inflation, according to the think-tank’s economists.

The twin policy prescription comes as the US central bank prepares to end its second, $600bn (£369bn) of quantitative easing (QE) next month. Although Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, has said a third shot of QE is unlikely, he has also signalled he is in no hurry to raise the target for the federal funds rate – the economy’s key lending rate.

The latest set of forecasts from the OECD have the world’s largest economy growing 2.6pc this year – stronger than its last prediction in November but considerably weaker than the Fed’s own expectations.

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But before we begin to see original work by Lynnette on HSH.com, I wanted to discuss a really interesting topic she addressed on her own website, TheMoneyCoach.net:

Well, plain and simple, it could spell disaster for your credit score.

Lenders don’t just automatically remove people from loans simply due to divorce, writes Lynnette. Even if you and your ex amicably split your assets between the two of you, that doesnt mean your creditors will abide by that.

Co-signing

In fact, whatever deal you work out with your soon-to-be ex-spouse has no bearing whatsoever on your legal responsibility to repay debts for which you and he were both co-signers, she writes. In

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Many analysts are expecting that Greece to default on her debts eventually. Politicians across the EU and within Greece deny that a default is just a matter of time. The Greeks point strenuously at the austerity measures that they have put in place already, with more to come, and at plans to sell off state held assets to raise funds.

The Greek Prime Minister, Mr Papandreou, survived a confidence vote last week and has urged fellow politicians to act in the national interest in passing a further, critical round of austerity measures tomorrow. If the Greeks pass the legislation then the Eurozone members will release the next tranche of EU/IMF bailout funding (€12 billion) which will allow Greece to avoid an immediate default. I

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This week saw some major developments, with Bank of America forking up $8.5 billion in a mortgage settlement and the Federal Reserve finally deciding on the much discussed debit interchange fee cap of 21 cents per transaction. Other headlines featuring Citibank and mobile shopping make up this weeks news wrap-up.

The enormous sum of $8.5 billion that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) paid out to investors ate up all of their profits earned so far this year and has them reporting second quarter losses at $8.6 to $9.1 billion, even though the Associated Press reported that the quarterly losses will be closer to $3.2 billion or $3.7 billion without the settlement and related charges included.

Bank of Americas (NYSE: BAC) Countrywide unit was under the gun when investors insisted that Bank of America repurchased the $47 billion of faulty mortgage-backed securities sold by Countrywide. T

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