Recently released data from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court system showed that personal bankruptcy filings in the United States for the 12 month period ending June 30, 2008, were up 28 percent to 934,009. Tennessee had the highest bankruptcy filing rate per capita, Michigan had the highest per capita rate of Chapter 7 filings (that’s the [...]
Forbes declared Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the city in the United States with the most delinquent credit cards in its recent article, The Debt Capitals of America. The delinquency rate of 2.28 percent in Pine Bluff is nearly double the national average of credit card delinquencies of 1.19 percent.
One of the sad parts of Forbes’ list [...]
I wrote a brief post a couple weeks back about how banks and credit card companies might begin declaring and exercising a right of offset, particularly on its business customers. If you don’t remember the post, it discusses how banks are increasingly seizing funds in the bank account of debtors who have business credit cards. [...]
Fair Isaac, the developer of the proprietary model used for the widely accepted FICO credit score, has announced that it has reversed its 2007 FICO 08 decision to remove the effect of an authorized user on a credit card account on the credit score of the authorized user. Its press release explains that it [...]
Connecticut is suing three credit rating agencies alleging that the rating agencies gave artificially low rates to municipalities, causing them to pay higher interest rates on bonds. Read more about it here.
I wonder if consumers who believe that they have been unfairly denied access to lower interest rate credit cards and debt could sue under [...]
In these days of increasingly tight credit, credit card companies are still targeting college students and potential first time cardholders for credit card offers. One study found that 33% of 2007 college graduates had credit card debt from college exceeding $5000. It’s gotten so bad that even a 4 year old girl was [...]
This story in Crain’s Cleveland Business about Medical Mutual of Ohio offering a medical credit card to assist its insured in paying their out of pocket medical expenses is part of a larger trend of the medical industry assisting consumers in paying for increasingly expensive treatments by offering payment assistance through credit cards.
But when a [...]
The United States isn’t the only country where consumers are having difficulty with credit card debt and rising expenses. I previously wrote about the problems with credit card debt in Great Britain. And several new news articles have focused on the spreading consumer debt crisis around the world:
Australians owe a national record $44.2 billion in [...]
Pretty much every newspaper article offering tips on using credit cards recommends that you pay off your credit card debt every month. But two recent surveys have found that some Americans don’t know whether they are following this oft given advice.
A survey of 1,000 Americans sponsored by CreditCards.com found that 5 percent didn’t know whether [...]
A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Research by Derek Rucker and Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University suggests that the cause of Americans consumer debt problems is low self esteem. The study found that individuals who felt powerless were willing to pay a premium for items [...]
