November 17, 2009 – 6:40 pm
Welcome to this week’s edition of Tuesday Top 5, our weekly tips post to help you manage your money in five easy steps.
Today we walk you through the all-important credit report, and what to do if you find inaccurate information on it. Your credit report plays a major role in determining your credit score, so it’s [...]
September 15, 2009 – 3:41 pm
No doubt about it, retailers have been hit hard by the reduction in consumer spending. But a few new trends in retail marketing could lead even the savviest shoppers into a financial trap.
MSN Money columnist M.P. Dunleavey wrote last week about the way outlet malls use psychology to seduce consumers into paying more for lower-quality [...]
September 10, 2009 – 5:13 pm
New numbers released by the Federal Reserve on Tuesday show that consumer borrowing decreased for the sixth consecutive month in July. A Wall Street Journal article notes that consumers are distancing themselves from debt both “by choice and by force, reflecting a combination of the thrifty attitude and tighter lending conditions that have defined the [...]
August 18, 2009 – 1:09 pm
At the risk of sounding smug, sometimes I feel like I’ve mastered the credit card game.
I get 1 percent cash back on my rewards card. And because I pay it off in full every month and it has no annual fee, my credit card bank is essentially paying me a dividend on top of giving [...]
August 13, 2009 – 2:53 pm
College is a time for students to learn to be on their own for the first time in their lives, and a majority have a lot to learn about managing money—especially handling their own finances.
Always organized and never one to miss a sale, I’ll admit that many times during college I flirted with [...]
The Wall Street Journal today reports that a rapidly-increasing number of credit card offers are for variable-rate lines of credit. According to the article, over 90% of recent credit card offer mailings were for variable-rate cards, up from 60% just last year.
Fixed-rate credit cards, however, have only been as “fixed” as the bank wanted them [...]
We’ve covered before how new credit laws mean tighter restrictions regarding who qualifies for a credit card, and how people with sterling credit scores could face higher fees under the new regulations. As it turns out, there’s another wrinkle in the law books that gives young people a truly bum deal.
Under the new law, if [...]
Credit card companies have never been as understanding as your middle school librarian, you know… the one who offered amnesty on late payments at the end of every school year. But with a record number of credit card defaults in May and new rules making it harder for banks to charge based on risk, the New York Times is reporting on a new trend of credit card companies settling delinquent accounts for substantially less than the amount owed.
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s personal finances were a hot topic last week, after disclosure forms revealed that she has nearly $16,000 in credit card debt, and owes another $15,000 to her dentist. There’s no shortage of discussions in the blogosphere about whether having that kind of debt is responsible behavior (see positive, negative). But [...]
Credit card companies are revealing some unintended consequences of the new credit reform bill that was signed into law today.
As we’ve mentioned before, some parts of the bill — like requiring larger print on credit agreements — give consumers a fair shake. But it also means banks may start charging interest on accounts that are [...]
