In an email to customers, savings site SmartyPig announced it had cut its rate from 1.75% to 1.35% APY. Now it’s no longer the top rate for a nationally available online savings account. Sad day. [More]
banks
More New Debit Card Fees Loom
By 1.5.11
Banks are making less money when you swipe your credit and debit cards because of new caps on interchange rates, the fee that they charge to process each of these transactions, that go into effect on July 1st. They have to make the money up somehow! We’ve seen new fee-incurring tripwires on checking accounts, and now they’re dreaming up even more fees for debit cards. Here’s what’s on their wishlist: [More]
What's My State's Statute Of Limitations On Debts?
By 1.3.11
One of the first thing you’ll want to check when you get a debt collection notice is the expiration date. No, it won’t be written on the top like a milk carton. But you can check to see when the debt is from. If it’s longer than your state’s statue of limitations on debt collections, they’re unlikely to successfully sue you. Those dates vary by state, so here’s a handy list that gets routinely updated. [More]
Dead Woman Used To Collect Thousands Of Debts
By 1.3.11
Martha Kunkle has been dead since 1995, but that hasn’t stopped her from trying to collect on thousands of debts. Despite being six feet under, her signature continued to be signed on thousands of affidavits filed by Portfolio Recovery Associates (PRA) in lawsuits against borrowers, lawsuits that are ripe for contesting because the documents they’re based on are fraudulent. [More]
Scams: Do You Know About Mortgage "Flopping?"
By 12.21.10
You’ve heard of “flipping” houses, well now there’s “flopping.” While the first was speculative, this one is outright fraud. [More]
UBS Gives Employees 43-Page Manual On How To Dress
By 12.15.10
Are you dress-SOX compliant? Swiss bank UBS has passed out a 43-page book to employees at 5 of its branches telling them what to wear and what not to wear. [More]
Man Dares Bank To Foreclose Unless They Reverse Bad Fees, Wins
By 12.15.10
About a month ago we brought you the story of a man who was willing to risk his house going into foreclosure unless the bank refunded a $25 fee it had wrongfully charged. He crossed his arms and stopped paying his mortgage. Fees mounted. The bank ignored his letters. His house was scheduled for foreclosure. It was the ultimate in real estate brinkmanship. Now, four days before the auction, the bank has blinked. [More]
See Exactly How Big Your Bank's Bailout Was
By 12.8.10
Just how big exactly was the bailout? And which banks got which kinds of loans? And how many did they get? It’s been hard to figure out, but now the Fed has released deep data on the over 21,000 different loans it made during the financial crisis—loans that were supposed to help encourage the banks to resume lending again. ProPublica has put all the numbers together into a searchable and filterable database so you check and see what kind of treasure chest your bank got. [More]
SEC Charges BofA With Setting Up Fake Bids To Defraud Munis
By 12.7.10
The SEC has charged Banc of America with fraud for rigging municipal bond sales with dummy bids, defrauding hospitals, schools, and other state-run organizations. The bank will pay $137 million to settle these charges. [More]
Chase Isn't Charging You A Fee, They're Rewarding You
By 12.6.10
Reached for comment about ex-WaMu “free checking” accounts becoming new Chase “fee checking” accounts, a Chase spokesperson told Consumerist, “What we’re trying to do is reward customers for giving us more of their business, in terms of multiple accounts, or deeper business, in terms of balances or direct deposits.” I then asked him if they were also trying to get rid of less profitable customers. [More]
Chase Kills "Free Checking" For Ex-WaMu Customers
By 12.6.10
Starting Feb. 8 2011, former WaMu account holders gobbled up by Chase will become the latest batch of customers to lose their free checking privileges. They will still get “free checks for life”, but their “free” checking is about to become “fee” checking. [More]
Why Savings Account Rates Suck Right Now
By 12.6.10
You may have noticed it’s dang hard to get a good rate for saving money right now. Used to be you could get an online savings account with 5%, no problem. Now if you can get in the upper 1% you’re doing pretty good. So what’s the dilly? [More]
A Lottery That Encourages Savings And No One Loses? America Hates It
By 12.3.10
Prize-Linked Savings plans are these things where a tiny bit of the interest on all the participants’ savings accounts get pooled together. Then on a regular basis someone gets randomly selected for a giant cash prize! The instruments have done well in other countries for years, encouraging people to save instead of wasting their money on a hopeless game. Naturally, America hates it. [More]
New Line Of Prepaid Debit Cards Target Teens With Cartoon Designs
By 12.3.10
Just days after the Kardashian Kard got cut, a new line of “Myplash” prepaid debit cards targeting teen consumers is here, bedecked with cutesy cartoon characters and Twilight stars. [More]
Is The Next WikiLeaks Dump All About Bank Of America?
By 12.1.10
Why should politics get all the fun? WikiLeaks has promised to release a trove of information about a “major” bank in 2011. And based on a comment WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange made to Computer World in 2009, folks are speculating that the next massive dump will be 5 gigs of data from a Bank of America executive’s hard drive. The main question is how to present it. Well, slideshows and infographics and popup ads, obviously. [More]
My Ex Ruined My Credit And Jamie Dimion Doesn't Care
By 11.24.10
Lawrence has been in two bad relationships, first with his ex and now with Chase. He and the woman had shared expenses. He was on her credit card. They broke up but he was still on her card, which she continued to run up to $15k. Lawrence escalated his request to get taken off the card all the way up to CEO Jamie Dimion, who promised to sic one of his secretaries on it. And since this is a letter being posted on Consumerist, you can imagine how well that worked out… [More]
List Of Sick Banks Rise To 17-Year High. Is Yours On It?
By 11.24.10
The number of banks on the FDIC’s “in danger of failing” list grew to 860 in July-September, a 17-year high. That number is up from 829 the previous quarter. The list is secret but even if your bank was on it, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to fail, only that it might. So what’s a good way to give your bank a checkup? [More]
Scammed In A Refi, Woman Loses Home
By 11.23.10
A woman who thought she was doing a simple refi for $50,000 and became the victim of an elaborate swindle was just dealt her final savage blow: her house is getting foreclosed on. [More]
