Thought the student loan crisis was bad as it is? Now add hefty fees into that mix. Providers say students can avoid the fees that pile up when they elect to receive their financial aid on a debit card, but new research from a consumer advocacy group finds that these companies throw up roadblocks to [...]
Americans are increasingly dependent on credit cards just to put food on the table and keep the lights on, a new study shows. Although we’re doing a better job overall paying our bills on time these days, many people are relying on more easily attainable credit just to keep their heads above water. With no [...]
At an event in Durham, N.C. on Wednesday, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray announced that the agency is “decid[ing] how we should go about regulating prepaid cards to better protect consumers and to provide clear rules for prepaid providers.” The rapidly growing prepaid market is attracting both banks and non-banks, and more Americans, especially [...]
Most middle-school kids have better things to think about than whether or not they’re members of the 1%. But one Los Angeles charter school upped the ante on the usual social anxieties of its annual dance when it installed a “V.I.P. lounge” — with a separate cover charge. On top of the $15 dance admission, [...]
A new survey shows that Americans will collectively spend more than $4.7 billion on gifts for students graduating college or high school this year. For some perspective, our country’s collective student loan debt has cracked the trillion-dollar mark and shot past totals for both credit-card debt and car loans. According to student loan education site [...]
Memorial Day is right around the corner, and summer vacations are top of mind. How are you going to pay for your trip? Credit card issuers are constantly piling on perks to attract new customers, and those with good credit who play their cards right can score big bonuses—which will help them afford their next [...]
We tapped 10 experts in saving, spending and budgeting and asked each of them to offer their single most important piece of advice for people who want to improve their finances.
Banks, the thinking goes, have never met a fee they didn’t like. Yet one credit card charge that has been standard for years—the “foreign transaction” or “foreign currency” fee, which tacks on an extra 3% or so to every hotel stay, meal, or tchotchke purchased outside the U.S.—is slowly but surely being dropped by more [...]
You can still take advantage of low prices in most places around the country, and mortgage rates are at once-in-a-lifetime record lows: 30- and 15-year fixed mortgages are around 4% and 3%, respectively.
The number of retail credit card accounts in late-stage delinquency is at a six-year low, according to Fitch Ratings, and charge-offs are down 38% from a little over two years ago. But will this new stability last?
Think staying off social-networking sites will help you preserve your privacy? Think again. In a new study, German researchers found that they could find substantial amounts of personal information about people who weren’t Facebook members just by seeing what their friends who were on Facebook posted about them.
