Filed under: Debt, Consumer Ally
A Nevada company that used interactive websites to make payday loans has agreed to refund West Virginia consumers a total of $305,446 to settle a lawsuit brought by the state attorney general’s office.
Payday loans typically charge high interest rates for short-term loans — rates that can add up to 600% to 800% in annual percentage rate. A borrower who can’t repay the payday loan and interest quickly digs a financial hole when then loan is renewed, which combines the original loan and interest with even more interest payments. The nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending estimates payday loans cost U.S. consumers $3.4 billion each year.
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Filed under: Banks, Credit, Home, Personal Loans
Now that President Barack Obama has signed into law the biggest overhaul of the banking industry since the Great Depression, many Americans are wondering exactly how financial reform will impact them.
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Filed under: Banks, Retire, Technology, Banking – Checking Account
Last month, I wrote about a big move by the Treasury Department to make all payments from the U.S. government electronically. In the announcement, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag called the change a “win-win for the American public.” Now, we’re hearing from others with a different opinion.
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Filed under: Debt
Collecting on America’s unpaid debts is big business. In the past, we here at WalletPop have contacted some of the people who earn a living as debt collectors and gotten them to spill their secrets. Now, CNN/Money is hopping on the bandwagon with this profile of 10 former debt collectors.
Many of them ‘fess up to either seeing or engaging in behavior that’s unprofessional at best, illegal at worst. One says she heard a co-worker threaten to beat up a debtor with a tire iron, while another said the technically-illegal practice of contacting friends and family about a debt was a good tactic for getting people to pay up. Several admitting raising their voices and yelling or deliberately making the people on the other end of the line feel bad, but many said plenty of debtors yelled and cursed right back at them, too. (Continue the story…)
Filed under: Banks, Credit, Technology, Fraud
Despite the best efforts of banks and security experts, Internet fraud continues to cost consumers millions of dollars every year. But a new credit card sized piece of plastic has the potential to stop one of the most popular forms of online fraud; fooling consumers or their banks into handing over information that can be used to empty accounts.
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Filed under: Borrowing, Credit, Debt, Bankruptcy, 101 credit&debt, In the News
Debtors prisons were federally abolished in the United States in the 1800’s, yet in certain states, they seem to be making a comeback. Out of Minnesota come disturbing reports of Americans being thrown in jail due to outstanding bills — sometimes for as little as $85. The Star-Tribune of Minneapolis profiles a number of people who say their debts got them jailed, including Joy Uhlmeyer a 57-year-old patient care advocate who was pulled over on her way home from visiting her elderly mother and put in jail for a night for missing a court hearing about unpaid debt.
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Filed under: Banks, Career, Recession
The unemployment rate remains stubbornly above 9 percent, but certain sectors hit hard by the recession are making a surprise come back. Finance is one, according to Paul Webster, a director of the front office banking area for top recruiting firm
Michael Page International. Wall Street, especially the big banks, is
once again opening its checkbook for talent. Webster, a recruiter with 10 years of experience in the U.K. and the U.S., shares some tips on where the jobs are and how to get them.
Where are the finance jobs today?
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Filed under: Banks, In the News
A tweet can land you in jail in Venezuela.
Two people were arrested Thursday for allegedly spreading false rumors on Twitter designed to destabilize Venezuela’s banking system. It’s against the law in that Latin American country to spread false rumors about the banking systems on any social network.
“Anybody who spreads malicious rumors by any means, emails, SMS messages on cellphones, Twitter, Facebook … or any other means of communication is committing a crime and should answer for it before the competent authorities,” national investigative police unit head Wilmer Flores Trosel said in a statement to Reuters.
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Filed under: Debt, Credit Cards, Personal Loans
America, give yourself a pat on the back. According to new data from the American Bankers Association, more of us are paying our credit cards and home equity loans on time — which is good news in a still shaky economy. Bank card delinquencies dropped from 4.39% in the last quarter of 2009 to 3.88% in the first quarter of this year. This rate is actually below the 15-year average for bank-card delinquencies, and is the lowest rate since 2002. (The ABA regards a delinquency as a payment more than 30 days overdue.)
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Filed under: Credit, Debt, Real Estate, Mortgages
There is one surefire way to reinvigorate the housing industry and it’s such a simple solution that regulators should be embarrassed they have to be reading about it here: Re-institute the liar loan.
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