Saving Money on Student Loans, and Other Fallacies of the Deficit Reduction Act
By now you’ve heard that the President signed the Deficit Reduction Act ("DRA") that is projected to save taxpayers $12 billion by making student loan funding more efficient for taxpayers. Will it?...
View ArticleFinancial Data Protection Act: More harm than good for many consumers
California has been a long time leader in providing consumers with identity theft protection laws. All residents of the Golden State have the ability to freeze their credit files and California law...
View ArticleSurvey: What Credit Card Reforms Would you Like to See?
As a personal finance writer, I am having so much fun with the new congress! It’s only been a few weeks since the 110th congress took power but already we’ve seen action on the credit bureau dispute...
View ArticleBankruptcy Law Forces Consumers Into Foreclosure
After a $25-million lobbying campaign in 2005 by Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan & Chase and Washington Mutual, Congress passed a law forcing people to continue paying their credit card debt...
View ArticleThe Ripple Effect
Lately we’ve seen the financial crisis affect major American corporations and tropical island paradises. While on vacation earlier this month, Joe Nocera, the New York Times’ funny and obsessed...
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S&P Downgrades U.S. Debt… Will Repo Men Come for Air Force One?
By now, nearly every American should know that a “credit report” and a “credit score” represent a measure of our personal financial integrity. Those reports and scores, for individuals, are kept and...
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Lawmakers Take a Look at Mobile Wallets
Over the last several months, companies in a number of industries have made significant advancements in developing and rolling out mobile wallet payment systems, and now, those platforms are coming...
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Obama Turns Up the Heat on Student Loan Rate Increase
There has been considerable discussion among federal lawmakers in the last several months about the way to best approach coming hikes to student loan interest rates, but little progress has been made....
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This Week in Credit News: Congress & Courts Edition
Our nation’s capitol was where all the action was happening this week. With the month coming to a close, deadlines were approaching for Congress to act on student loan interest rates and for the...
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CFPB Head Faces Tough Questions From Congress
The federal consumer watchdog agency recently celebrated its first birthday, but GOP lawmakers are attacking it as vehemently as ever, questioning why it hasn’t done more to encourage lending to...
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Moody’s Says U.S. Credit Rating Contingent on Federal Budget
In recent years, partisan politics has led to a number of issues, one of the largest being the downgrade of the United States’ credit rating. Now, one of the top credit rating organizations in the...
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Retailers Ask Congress to Stop Swipe-Fee Settlement
In the past few weeks, many major retail groups have gone to some lengths to try to stop the proposed settlement between a number of complainants and the world’s two largest payment processing firms...
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CFPB Complaints Get Extra Protection From Lawmakers
The federal watchdog agency charged with helping to ensure that consumers have all the financial protections they need now encourages Americans to submit complaints about difficulties they’ve had, and...
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Fight to Halt the College Loan Rate Jump Heats Up
Students nationwide, along with some federal lawmakers, are working hard to ensure that school loan interest rates don’t double this summer — something which may hamper many college-aged consumers in...
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The Government Agency That Should Fine Itself
This just in from the “It Couldn’t Possibly Get Any Worse” Department: The first wave of checks from the bungled foreclosure abuse settlement landed in mailboxes around the country this week, but when...
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Medical Debt Gets New Focus in Congress
There has been a lot of focus from lawmakers in recent months on the ways in which medical debts can severely impact consumers’ finances for years. Now, more are moving to do something to help these...
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Congress to College Grads: You’re On Your Own
George Carlin would have had a field day with the student loan pricing circus currently on display in Congress. To paraphrase one of his epic rants, they care about you while you’re in college, but...
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6 Members of Congress With the Most Student Loan Debt
Americans sometimes find it difficult to relate to members of Congress, particularly from a financial standpoint. That’s understandable: Lawmakers are, on average, significantly wealthier than the...
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