Category Archives: Debt Articles

Senators Angry About Freddie Mac Betting Against Homeowners

by Jesse Eisinger ProPublica Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., had sharp words for Freddie Mac’s investment practices and conflicts of interest at a Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday. The senator’s concerns came in the wake of a ProPublica and NPR report that Freddie, the giant taxpayer-owned mortgage company, had made concentrated investments in complex mortgage securities [...]

CFPB Gets an Earful of Good Suggestions About Student Loan Disclosures

Recently the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) requested feedback from consumers about student loan issues. Advanced results and feedback on the survey are now available. The focus of the CFPB effort is to make information more available to students and potential students so they can make the best and most informed decision possible before falling [...]

Mortgage Settlement With Banks Leaves Consumers Still Looking In the Abandoned Windows

by Cora Currier ProPublica The Obama administration is billing today’s $25 billion agreement between most states and five banks that engaged in flawed or deceptive practices as a big win for struggling homeowners. Most of the money in the settlement isn’t a penalty, or a fine levied on the banks. Instead, the biggest slice of [...]

GetOutOfDebt.org Named Top Site for Dealing With Debt on MSN Money

I love surprises. Good surprises that is. And I just got one. A reader let me know the GetOutOfDebt.org website was just listed as the top site by Liz Weston for dealing with debt issues. Her article about The 102 Best Money Websites was directed at those that “Need information or help with a money [...]

Your Primary Language Impacts Your Ability to Save for the Future

In a paper by M. Keith Chen of Yale University School of Management and Cowles Foundation, a conclusion was drawn that the language you speak has an impact on your ability to save for the future. Languages differ widely in the ways they partition time. In this paper I test the hypothesis that languages which [...]

Nice Move by Chicopee Savings Bank to Fund Financial Literacy Project. Hat Tip.

Cambridge Credit Counseling announced the release today of the agency’s latest edition of its Learn Now or Pay Later guide to financial literacy. The project was underwritten with grant funding provided by Chicopee Savings Bank’s Charitable Foundation, in recognition of the community education initiatives conducted by Cambridge throughout Western Massachusetts. According to Cambridge’s president and [...]

Aging South Koreans Falling into More Debt Troubles Says Credit Counseling and Recovery Service

Photo Credit: Wilson Loo The growing trend of the elderly falling into more problem debt is not restricted to the United States alone. Credit Counseling and Recovery Service of South Korea is reporting that of the total number of debt workouts they assisted people with last year, 24 percent were fifty years old or older. [...]

Payment Protection Plans Horrible for Consumers. Banks Love Them.

We’ve all seen them. Those offers to cover us if we are sick, laid off or injured and unable to make our credit card payments. Over the years, for every one person that has told me they have received some payment or benefit from the program, there have probably been 500 more that have not. [...]

Citizens’ Debt Settlement Fund Pays to Settle Debts of Citizens in UAE

President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates has just announced a national $2,722,600,000 fund for low-income debtors to use to settle their debts with a number of UAE and Dubai lenders. This fund will allow people to be able to settle their debts rather than face prosecution and [...]

SpringCoin Rolls Out Automated Debt Advice and Debt Relief Coach System

A reader just sent in this recent press release to share with readers. At $35 a month, if this software lives up to it’s hype and promises it could radically change the debt relief landscape as we know it today. The key is going to be in the operation and how tightly it is integrated [...]

There are Good Debt Collectors and Then There Are Debt Collectors That Lie, Cheat, Steal, and Threaten

A reader brought the following article to my attention, America’s Abusive Debt Collectors on the DailyBeast.com. It is an interesting look into some of the bad collection outfits by Gary Rivlin. Gary includes first-person accounts of some of the actions they were asked or required to do to keep their jobs as collectors. These bad [...]

Credit Card Interest Rate Reduction Scam Nailed in Canada-U.S. Sting

The Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with four of the defendants in an allegedly phony debt relief services operation that claimed that, for $995, it would dramatically reduce consumers’ credit card interest rates. Under the settlement, reached as part of the FTC’s continuing efforts against frauds that target financially strapped consumers, the defendants [...]

Federal Housing Finance Agency Just STICKING it to Homeowners

by Cora Currier ProPublica, Last week, ProPublica and NPR raised questions about a risky investment strategy at Freddie Mac that would pay off if homeowners stayed trapped in expensive mortgages. It’s just the latest example of how government-owned Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have frustrated many by not putting homeowners first. Fannie and Freddie are [...]

NCO Financial Systems Settles Multi-State Issues Regarding Consumer Debt Collection

On the heels of the recent settlement with the FTC and DOJ by Asset Acceptance, NCO Financial Systems has announced a settlement with a number of states over “irregularities” or problems. The states included in the settlement are: Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, [...]

Damn Canada. An F Already for the Law Offices of Mark Silverthorn?

A tipster was filling me in on a cross-broder debt relief effort between Michael Lupolover, an attorney here in New Jersey and Canadian attorney Mark Silverthorn. The firm is Silverthorn & Lupolover Lawyers, LLP and is located at: Silverthorn & Lupolover Lawyers LLP 30 Duke Street West, Suite 1001 Kitchener, ON N2H 3W5 Silverthorn & [...]