Consumers Union, which runs the influential Consumer Reports publication and website, recently came out in favor of the federal government further lowering penalty fees consumers can be charged, according to a report from the Madison Capital Times. It believes these charges, capped at $25 for a first offense and $35 for repeated missteps, can add […]
The Arizona state Senate recently voted to clarify the length of time in which defaulted credit card debt can be pursued by its original lender or a collection agency as six years, according to a report from the Yuma Sun. However, critics say that the original lenders often sell these outstanding debts to collections agencies […]
How Can you Reduce your Medical Debt? Health care costs in the U.S have skyrocketed in the recent years. If you are one of those few lucky people who have sufficient medical insurance coverage then this might not be a major concern for you. However, a large number of people are experiencing financial crunch since […]
Consumer spending led to an increase in the average amount of credit card debt in 33 states across the country between the third and fourth quarter of 2010, according to a new report from the credit monitoring bureau TransUnion. Similarly, the amount of new credit card accounts granted to consumers grew 19.1 percent between that […]
The latest data from American Express shows that the lender saw instances of consumers falling 30 or more days behind in paying their credit card debt slip to just 2 percent in February, according to a report from Dow Jones Newswires. This was a slight decrease from the previous month's rate of 2.1 percent. Meanwhile, […]
Bank of America recently announced it would add a $59 annual fee to the accounts of about 5 percent of its credit card customers in an effort to increase revenue, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. In all, the change, which goes into effect on April 11, will hit about 2 million […]
The total amount of debt held by Americans nationwide fell to $13.4 trillion, the second straight year in which consumers reduced what they owe to lenders, according to the latest statistics from the Federal Reserve Board. Meanwhile, the net worth of all U.S. Households rose to $56.8 trillion duringthe fourth quarter of last year, up […]
Last fall, TCF National Bank, which is headquartered in South Dakota, filed a lawsuit against the federal government, alleging that regulations that limit the interchange fees whenever consumers use their credit card to make a purchase violate the constitution, according to a report from the upper Midwest news source the Minn Post. However, the U.S. […]
Household debt has fallen from more than $12 trillion nationwide to figures ranging around $11.5 trillion. But considerably more than half of the $1.1 trillion drop in consumer debt has been the result of banks striking bad accounts from their records, according to a report from Time Magazine. In all, $695 billion of that $1.1 […]
Almost all of the top 25 cities in the country with the most credit card debt in December were located in the Southern U.S., according to a recent study from the credit reporting bureau Experian. Residents of San Antonio, Texas, led the nation with $5,177 in average credit card debt, and Jacksonville, Florida, also topped […]