An update to how the new FICO ’08 scoring system got revamped this year:
personal finance
Congress Seeks To Move Up Credit Card Act Implementation To December 1st
By 9.24.09
Today, Reps. Barney Frank and Carolyn Maloney are going to request that the implementation date for the rest of the Credit Card Act‘s rules be moved to December 1st of this year instead of February 2010, after seeing companies “jacking up their rates and doing other things to their customers in advance of the effective date” all summer, reports Mary Pilon at The Wall Street Journal.
Credit Card Traps
By 9.24.09
As if a global meltdown, precipitous drop in investment value, and widespread unemployment isn’t bad enough, now the economic recession is now making credit cards a bad thing. Will the travesty never end?
Food Makers Not Passing On Savings From Falling Commodities Prices
By 9.23.09
The prices of commodities has dropped from their peaks of last year, yet food makers are not reducing consumer prices, reports Marketplace. Now this is rather funny, and familiar.
Personal Finance Roundup
By 9.23.09
10 Ways To Make Your Boss Love You [Smart Money] “10 strategies that employees in almost any job can use to help keep their bosses happy-and keep themselves off the street.”
Where To Find Great Personal Finance Writing Online
By 9.21.09
If you don’t know about the Carnival of Personal Finance, it’s a weekly round-up of interesting posts from the glut of personal finance blogs and websites that now litter the web. I discovered two of today’s posts—the 23 debt-saving tips and the the alkaline-vs-rechargeables story—through the most recent Carnival.
23 Tips On How To Pay Down Your Debt
By 9.21.09
If you’re still floundering when it comes to paying off debt, here’s a great starting place for you. The blog DoughRoller has listed 23 ways to get started on freeing yourself from debt, along with lots of links to tools and other articles or websites that can help.
How To Financially Benefit From The Mistakes Of Others
By 9.21.09
Monevator dishes out some general advice on stock investing to keep in mind as the economy (hopefully) starts to turn around and investing no longer becomes a bottomless money pit.
Discover Vastly Improves T&C But Reduces Open Road Rebates
By 9.21.09
Discover Card customers received a notice in the mail recently that the card was reducing the “Open Road” rebate on auto maintenance and gas dropped from 5% to 2%. Around the same time, customers have also received notice that the terms and conditions for the card are basically coming in line with the CARD act ahead of schedule. Hmmm, coinkydink?
Couple Attempts To Stretch Half A Year's Pay Into A Full Year
By 9.18.09
CNN profiles a young family living in a Chicago suburb who have decided to carry out an experiment in frugal living—they want to see if they can reduce their expenses enough to get by on about half of what they made before the wife and sole breadwinner was laid off earlier this summer.
Read My "Google Power Reader" Feed
By 9.17.09
Google selected me to be one of their “Power Readers,” which means you can easily subscribe to an RSS feed with some of the blogs I recommend reading. I encourage checking out The Red Tape Chronicles, Bankrate, Credit Slips, Elliot.org, and Frugal for Life, as well as the other blogs recommended by my fellow “Power Readers.” Yes, we all got issued special laser rings.
Retirement Savings Before College Savings
By 9.17.09
These days many parents are struggling with saving any amount of money. So imagine the difficulty of trying to tackle the seemingly insurmountable tasks of saving for college and retirement simultaneously. No question, it’s a tall order. To give parents some options to consider, US News offers suggestions for dealing with this double-headed financial dragon as follows:
Finally, A Personal Finance Podcast For People Who Don't Want To Listen
By 9.16.09
The blog Personal Finance Hour is the home to a weekly live audio show with personal finance bloggers over whatever topics they like. Sometimes the conversation turns inward and focuses on trying to blog for profit, or blogging as a part time job. Sometimes the conversation is about things like remodeling your home or planning for a vacation.
Personal Finance Roundup
By 9.16.09
Seven New Rules for the First-Time Home Buyer [NY Times] “Here’s how they dismantled the old saw – and a list of seven suggestions they offered up in its place.”
Advice: Don't Try To Open A JC Penney Account With The Person You're ID Thefting
By 9.15.09
Did you hear about the identity thief in Seattle who tried to open a JC Penney credit card account with one of the very women whose identity she had stolen?
What's The Over/Under On Mint Starting To Suck Now That Intuit Bought Them?
By 9.15.09
I blanched when I saw the subject line, “Mint.com to be acquired by Intuit, maker of Quicken.” More like “Mint.com to be acquired by Intuit, makers of crap,” I thought. Judging by your comments, I don’t blanch alone.
