The next time you apply for a credit card, your credit report and income will be only a part of the criteria used to determine your creditworthiness. For that matter, as long as you have the card, what you use it for will be noted and added to a growing set of data that makes up your psychological profile, which will then be referred to every time the bank deals with your or reevaluates your risk as a customer.
lender’s
President Obama Meets With Credit Card Executives Today To Tell Them They Are Not Approved
By 4.23.09
It’s a good week for consumer protection against abusive credit card practices. Yesterday, the House Financial Services Committee approved the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights, and this afternoon President Obama is meeting with officials from 14 credit card companies to tell them “that greater consumer protections are coming for their customers, with or without their cooperation.”
AmTrust Offers Homeowner $50 To Voluntarily Close HELOC
By 4.10.09
Here’s a new tactic we haven’t seen before: mortgage originator AmTrust called blogger BeThisWay and offered her $50 to voluntarily close her home equity line of credit (HELOC), possibly in response to the recent class action lawsuit against them for illegally closing HELOCs. She writes, “Well, I’d like to keep my HELOC. But I have to figure out AmTrust’s next move. What will they do if not enough people voluntarily surrender their HELOCs? Are cancellations next? Am I better off taking the $50 now, or waiting, hoping they don’t cancel it?”
Report: Loan Modifications To Date Haven't Been That Effective
By 4.4.09
Fewer than half of loan modifications made at the end of last year actually reduced borrowers’ payments by more than 10 percent… [while] nearly one in four loan modifications in the fourth quarter actually resulted in increased monthly payments.
New York Times: Walking Away From Your Mortgage, Not So Bad After All
By 3.22.09
Great news, distressed homeowners! If you aren’t eligible for the President’s homeowner assistance package and can’t negotiate a better deal on your mortgage, the New York Times says that turning in the keys and leaving your home may not be the end of your financial world. The Times mapped out a guide for dealing with the various players controlling your mortgage…
How Credit Bureaus Correct, Or Fail To Correct, Errors On Your Report
By 2.3.09
SmartMoney’s Anne Kadet looked into the process by which the three major credit bureaus—Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax—investigate and correct errors on credit reports. What she found was that the process is “almost entirely automated,” and that “many lenders respond by simply rereporting the erroneous data.” Here’s how it works, and your meager options when something goes wrong.
Treasury, FDIC Considering Plan To Guarantee Millions Of Mortgages
By 10.29.08
The Washington Post says that the Treasury Department and the FDIC are considering a plan to guarantee millions of mortgages. According to the WaPo, the plan under consideration would encourage lenders to reduce borrowers monthly payments based on the homeowner’s ability to pay. To attract lenders into the program, the government would guarantee to repay the lender for a portion of its loss if the borrower defaulted on the reconfigured loan.
Sallie Mae Stops Student Loan Consolidation, Will No Longer Pay Origination Fees On Stafford Loans
By 4.15.08
Consolidation loans are no longer profitable for Sallie Mae, so it’s saying goodbye to them. SmartMoney points out that ultimately this shouldn’t matter for students taking out new loans, since the original point of consolidation—converting lots of variable rate loans into a nice predictable fixed rate loan—is no longer relevant (all federal student loans are now disbursed with fixed interest rates.) SmartMoney says if you still have variable rate loans you need/want to consolidate, check out the government’s consolidation offering—”You’re likely to pay the same consolidation rates you’d pay if you did so with Sallie Mae,” they write.
Mortgage Meltdown Isn't Just A Subprime Problem Anymore
By 2.13.08
The New York Times says that the mortgage meltdown isn’t just a subprime problem anymore, but has spread into the prime market where consumers with good credit are now struggling to pay their bills.
Maloney Introduces Credit Card Bill Of Rights; Lending Institutions Smirk
By 2.9.08
The Credit Card Bill Of Rights Act, which was introduced on Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives, would limit interest rate hikes and late fee penalties that credit card companies use to unfairly squeeze profits from customers.
FBI Starts Investigating The Entire Mortgage Industry
By 1.30.08
The New York Times says that the FBI has begun an investigation that includes almost the entire mortgage industry—from the lenders to the brokers to the Wall Street banks who packaged the loans as securities. They’re cooperating with the SEC and wouldn’t name which firms they’re targeting, but the Times said that it includes 14 companies.
By 1.18.08
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Now that SallieMae buy-out deal has crumbled and they’re facing much higher borrowing costs due to the subprime fiasco, the unpopular student lender will shed 3% of its workforce, or 350 jobs, mostly CSRs at their call centers.
Failure: H&R Block Shuts Down Subprime Lending Operation
By 12.4.07
H&R Block has decided to admit defeat after a plan to sell its troubled subprime lending operation to Cerberus Capital Management LP finally unraveled.
House Tackles Subprime Meltdown, Amends Truth In Lending Act
By 11.17.07
The House this week voted 291-127 to pass the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act, Congress’ first major attempt to prevent a recurrence of the ongoing subprime meltdown. The bill, supported by every Democrat and 64 Republicans, stabs at the heart of the meltdown by:
- Establishing a national licensing and registration system for mortgage lenders;
- Establishing the Office of Housing Counseling within HUD to help borrowers avoid foreclosure;
- Banning loans that a borrower cannot reasonably repay;
- Banning lenders from steering borrowers towards loans with predatory characteristics;
- Making banks that securitize mortgages liable for violating lending laws.
FDIC Chair Suggests Fixing Rates To Solve Mortgage Crisis
By 10.19.07
Sheila C. Bair, the chair of the FDIC, suggests that lenders “restructure all 2/28 and 3/27 subprime hybrid loans for owner-occupied homes in cases where the borrower has been making timely payments but can’t afford the reset payments. Convert these to fixed-rate loans at the starter rate.”
Critics Say Countrywide Isn't Doing Enough To Help Foreclosed Homeowners
By 10.16.07
Countrywide is catching hell from consumer advocates who say they’re not doing enough to help the homeowners they’ve foreclosed on.
Foreclosures Doubled In September
By 10.11.07
Last month saw twice as many foreclosures than last September, says RealtyTrac, the foreclosure tracking organization.
Countrywide Gets Another $12 Billion In Bailout Money Financing
By 9.20.07
Reuters is reporting that Countrywide has announced that it has secured an additional $12 billion in financing to help it hang on through the housing slowdown.
