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 [...]
New York Times economic columnist Edmund L. Andrews got real with his readers this week and shared an enormous secret: Even personal-finance experts aren’t immune to poor money management.
In an article adapted from his upcoming book, he explains how easy it was for him to get in over his head in debt, starting with buying [...]
A credit card can be a convenient way to manage your expenses, or an expensive way to rack up debt and exorbitant fees. If the U.S. Senate passes the credit card reform bill it’s considering this week, that could change. The bill would overhaul a lot of the regulations governing credit card agreements, and has [...]
A new study from Sallie Mae, the largest provider of student loans in the U.S., found that 30% of American students put at least some of their tuition payments onto personal credit cards. That’s an increase of six percentage points since 2004.
Perhaps equally troubling, the study found that only 18% of students are able to [...]
The Sunday New York Times had a good story about the 2,000+ debt settlement companies in the United States and some of the controversy surrounding them.
Debt settlement firms market themselves as a solution for people with crippling credit card debt. The idea is that you pay the settlement firm to negotiate with the credit card [...]
