Today’s consumers are increasingly likely to pay off credit card bills in full, skip vacations, dine out less, hold off on buying big-ticket items like new cars, and even trim everyday expenses by, say, subbing a generic cereal …
Borrowing
New Hybrid Card Convenient But Potentially Expensive
Fifth Third bank has debuted a hybrid credit-debit card called Duo, which is linked to both a checking account and a line of credit. But beware: Using the card could be costly.
Student Loan Delinquency Rate on the Rise
If you believe conventional wisdom, student loans are “good” debt: They’re safe, lead to higher incomes, and generally pay off in the long run. The problem is that an increasing amount of evidence is showing that this thinking is distinctly unwise.
This Is an Emergency Fund Emergency: 64% of Americans Don’t Have $1,000 in Savings
If you suddenly needed $1,000 to cover an unexpected expense, how would you come up with the money? In a new survey, only 36% of Americans said they’d simply turn to their trusty savings accounts. The rest would be forced to hit …
Farewell to ARMs: The Debt Debacle Should Convince Homeowners To Lock In Their Rates
The debt drama's potential to cause the first large rate hikes in several years should scare some borrowers off from increasingly popular adjustable rate mortgages – but will it?
Top 10 Consumer Complaints
What’s getting consumers up in arms lately? Check out the list that follows. Working with various state, local, and federal consumer agencies, the Consumer Federation of America has gathered and sifted through more than 252,000 …
Payday Lending Has Gone Mainstream
Most of the public scorn for payday lenders is heaped on mom and pop storefront operations — and the national chains that do nothing but payday loans: publicly-traded companies like Advance America, EZ Corp, and QC Holdings. These companies make small cash loans to generally low-income consumers — and charge a fee of, perhaps, $20 for …
Should You Buy a House with a Ton of Student Loan Debt?
Liz Weston, one of the best personal finance experts out there, recently received this question from a reader:
Next year we will be shopping for a house in the $150,000-to-$200,000 range and hope to have $20,000 to $30,000 saved for a down payment. We have about $75,000 in student loans we are paying down. Would it be better to
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Consumer Debt: How Do You Compare?
After cutting back for three years, Americans are feeling more relaxed about borrowing and have started increasing their debt levels again. Is that smart? And how does your own financial situation compare?
Richard Cordray, Top Consumer Advocate Nominee, in 10 Quotes
President Obama nominated Richard Cordray, the former attorney general of Ohio, to officially have your back. If and when Cordray is confirmed, he’ll run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency created last summer to …
A New Way to Get Your Credit Score for Free
Almost everyone gets at least a little anxious when applying for an auto loan or a mortgage, but it’s even more stressful for people who get stuck paying higher interest rates or are turned down because of their credit. These …
The Two Most Confusing Phrases in Financial Aid
There’s a lot of confusion and misinformation out there when it comes to college admissions and financial aid, and a lot of it surrounds terminology. One of the most common misunderstandings concerns a policy that most U.S. …