It was a busy Monday for banking news, with one big company rolling out a new prepaid card and another behemoth launching a …
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5 Smart Strategies to Eliminate Your Credit Card Debt
Minimum payment due, reads the box on your credit-card statement. What an enticing idea: Pay a small amount and you’re off the hook for the whole bill—for a while, anyway. Alas, as the more than 45% of Americans who carry a …
Would You Pay $520 in Interest to Borrow $375? 12 Million Americans Did Last Year
Americans spend more than $7.4 billion on payday loans every year. That’s hardly peanuts, especially when you consider that these billions are earned $50 to $100 at a time, often off the backs of the Americans who can least …
4 Rules for Getting a Car Loan
Americans are buying cars again in a big way, with new car sales expected to be up 30% year-over-year in May, continuing the trajectory of rising demand that’s been going strong all year. Given that most of us aren’t going to …
The Subprime Generation: Stop Using Dubious Financial Services!
More young Americans – even those earning between $50,000 and $75,000 – are using payday lenders, prepaid debit cards and other questionable financial services. But there are better alternatives to those “alternatives.”
We’re Finally Paying Our Bills On Time: Can We Stick With It?
Congratulations, America — it looks like you’re starting to get the hang of this “payment due date” concept. The number of retail credit card accounts in late-stage delinquency is at a six-year low, according to Fitch Ratings, …
More Americans Have FICO Scores of 800+
Could this be a light at the end of the credit crisis tunnel? According to new research from Fair Isaac Corporation, the company responsible for FICO scores, the percentage of Americans with top-notch credit scores is the best it’s been since 2008. In addition, the number of people in the bottom tier of the credit spectrum has fallen to …
Hey, Sis, Can I Bum Some Money? Another Reason It Sucks To Be A Middle Child
There’s been much focus over the years on the role of birth order on personality, employment and finances, to list just a few areas. Whatever you think of the broad idea—first proposed by Sigmund Freud collaborator
5 Credit Facts Every Couple Should Know
While your finances might not be the first thing that springs to mind as Valentine’s Day approaches, your credit can be affected by your partner’s history and spending habits. Credit counselors advise couples to sit down together …
Yikes! The Rise of Subprime Credit Cards
During and after the financial crisis, consumers had a hard time obtaining new credit cards or accounts. This trend appears to be reversing, but a closer look at who banks are lending to has some experts worried. The number of …
Debt Tsunamis, Debt Snowballs, and Why the Conventional Wisdom About Defeating Debt is Wrong
When you’re in debt, one of the toughest problems is knowing where to start. It’s not that you have just one debt. You have several. Or dozens. Which debt should you pay off first?
New Sallie Mae Book Offers Advice on How to Pay for College
QuitAssist is a website Philip Morris offers to help you quit smoking the cigarettes that they sold you in the first place. And there’s Mohegan Sun’s Responsible Gaming hotline, which helps gambling addicts who throw their money …