Check out a new blog on the consumer beat, Alpha Consumer, published by U.S. News and World Report and penned by Kimberly Palmer. In long-format style, Palmer tackles reader questions, gets expert quotes, and tries to help people conquer personal financial problems. Recent posts include:
How to Pay Off Multiple Debts
How to Recover From Bankruptcy
Ex-Spouses Can Ruin Each Other’s Credit
She’s looking for stories to investigate so be sure to send yours to alphaconsumer@usnews.com.
Alpha Consumer [U.S. News And World Report]
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Is this some rip-off site?
Wow. Mostly terrible advice. We really need another site on the intertubes spewing terrible financial advice? I really got a kick out of the “How to Pay Off Multiple Debts” article where they really didn’t tackle said issue and got their advice on rolling credit card debt into a home refi from a … bank’s mortgage specialist!
Their other two options – debt settlements or bankruptcy! No, you could never get your act together and pay it off. Never. Not an option.
She’s not as cute as Meg, so I don’t know if I’ll bother with it…
@anatak: Um… isn’t the point of rolling the credit card debt into the mortgage to pay the debt off, only at a lower rate?
@King of the Wild Frontier: You didn’t pay it off by rolling it. You just moved it around. Only now, you’re paying it off over 30 years.
Nothings really changed, and you’ve learned nothing from the experience. But the you helped the bank’s mortgage specialist meet her quota for the month. That would be a lose-lose-win.
@anatak: Paying it off over thirty years is still paying it off. The letter writer is getting divorced and can’t just decide to not eat for a year while she’s paying off credit card balances.
CONSUMERIST vs. ALPHACONSUMER in a deathmatch! You guys would kick her/their ass(es). That is all.
Do Not Want.
If they don’t post cat pics (and the occasional dog pic) with their posts, there’s no way I’m trusting their info.
Popken/Marco ’08
Wow, is that “Ex-Spouses can ruin each other’s credit rating” a how-to guide?
@King of the Wild Frontier: OH, yeah! Quick! Bury your head in the sand and pretend it never happened!
If she got her act together, sacrificed, and worked extra jobs that debt would be gone in 2 years. And no, paying it off over 30 years is not paying it off, because she isn’t going to be there in 30 years. Sell the stupid house, pay off the debt and move on. There is so much to that story that AC didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of. So, yes, AC is still terrible advice.
And no, paying it off over 30 years is not paying it off, because she isn’t going to be there in 30 years.
@anatak: What, you plan on bumping this woman off?