Beverly, who always pays on time and recently started paying off her balance in full every month, just saw the rate on her Capital One card more than double, from 13.9% to 29.4%. That’ll teach you to not help sink the economy, Beverly!
debt
Addicted To Debt? Take Our 15 Question Quiz
By 2.19.09
Are you addicted to debt? And I don’t just mean addicted like oh I’m addicted to curly fries, they’re so delicious, I mean addicted like a psycho-chemical need to keep slamming that credit card through the swiper. Maybe you know someone like this. Take this 15 question quiz, and if you answer “yes” to 8 more, you could be an addict.
Bank Of America Blames You And Your Dead Mother For Financial Crisis
By 2.6.09
CSR: Oh, that’s really not the way to look at it. I know that if it were my mother, I’d pay it. That’s why we’re in the banking crisis we’re in: banks having to write off defaulted loans.
Fake Debt Collectors 'Moreno And Woods' Strike Again
By 2.5.09
Another reader has contacted us to say that Moreno and Woods, the fake collection agency that likes to threaten and intimidate people into paying huge bills for collections they don’t owe, “called my house last night and left a threatening message on my phone for my son.” Luckily for Linda, she’s got a recording of their threat now.
Save On Credit Card Bills By Paying Earlier
By 2.4.09
By making one simple change, you can use the same amount of money to pay off your credit card faster.
Debunking The Debt Collectors' Spin Doctors
By 2.2.09
The nation’s economic woes make debt collection a topic du jour, but while there are some good bits mixed into the Washington Post’s article, “When Debt Collectors Disrupt Dinner,” it probably should have been titled “What Debt Collectors Would Like You To Say And Do When They Call About The Credit Card.” Read it with a shaker of salt. Read on for the good, the bad, and the lazy reporting, plus what you should actually to protect and exercise your rights as a debtor…
Save Thousands On Credit Card Debt By Paying Off More Each Month
By 1.27.09
Are you smarter than a credit card? You’re not if you’re not paying off more than what the credit card company requires you to each month.
Desperate Debtor Cuts Off Finger In Court
By 1.21.09
A Lisbon man cut off his finger in the middle of court after a judge refused his offer to settle his 170,000 euro ($219,436) debt. “My intention was to tear up all the case papers and splatter them with blood so I could prevent the expropriation order for my land,” said Orico Silva…
Debt Collectors Incessantly Harass Dead Son's Parents
By 1.16.09
Debt collectors are illegally harassing Vincent’s parents for debt their son owes. Vincent died last year at 27 from a sudden heart attack during a softball game. “I’m afraid to pick up the phone in my own home,” said Roco Crimeni, father. “That’s the hard part, to tell them my son is dead. How many times do I have to repeat it?”
Citibank Will Split Into Two Companies, Promises To Lend To Consumers
By 1.16.09
Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup, announced today that the company would be split after reporting a net loss for 2008 of $18.72 billion. He also promised to put the money from the $700 bailout to work by extending credit to consumers and businesses… responsibly.
Personal Finance Roundup
By 1.15.09
Here’s our weekly roundup of the best personal finance news. Inside: investing lessons, gadgets to buy, mentoring, career tips for women, and fixing money mistakes.
Deprogram Bad "Money Scripts"
By 1.12.09
How you relate to money money could have a lot to do with emotional connections you made to money at a young age, and these so-called “money scripts” can be a blindspot that’s causing you financial pain, reports WSJ.
Walmart CEO Thinks Consumers Have Finally Learned That Debt Is Bad
By 1.12.09
Retailers are hoping that the credit crunch ends and consumers will start spending like crazy again — but Walmart’s CEO Lee Scott doesn’t think that’s going to happen.
Consumer Borrowing Dropped $7.9 Billion In November
By 1.8.09
“Consumers have clammed up,” said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics LLC in Pepper Pike, Ohio, who forecast a decline. “The reduction in consumer credit doesn’t stop here, and will spill over into 2009. Households are bolstering their balance sheets.”
By 1.6.09
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The consistently useful Get Rich Slowly has some New Year’s resolutions for you: 9 Methods for Mastering Your Money in 2009. We especially like methods 3 and 7, as they’re easy fixes that shouldn’t take more than a couple hours to implement.
How Universities And Credit Card Companies Make Money Off Of Students
By 1.2.09
How can an educational institute act in its students’ best interest if it stands to make money off of increasing their debt load? The symbiotic relationship between universities and credit card companies is being questioned more than ever by student groups and politicians, writes the New York Times.
New Credit Card Rules Will Force Banks To Reduce Credit Lines, Close Accounts, Supposedly
By 12.19.08
Here’s another reason to wean yourself off of credit cards, and build up a robust emergency fund, in 2009: the credit card party is about to really dry up, says one analyst.
Beware: Credit Card Minimum Payments Are Messing With Your Mind
By 12.18.08
Credit Card minimum payments are supposed to help keep the accumulation of interest on credit card debt from getting out of control — but a new study reported in the Economist suggests that minimum payments do more harm than good.
