Submitted by Lee Perlman, New Jersey Attorney. When Camilla Vásquez and her husband, Rubén, went to a dealership to shop for a new car last June, they found the salesman affable and low-key. To their surprise, Dr. Vásquez said, the hard sell began after the deal was sealed. That’s when the salesman pulled out a […]
The Quickest Way to Build Credit Using a Secured Credit Card
If you’re like a lot of Americans and need to build or rebuild your credit score, then a secured credit card is a good option for two big reasons. Unlike standard credit cards, secured cards generally don’t require a stringent credit check (i.e. you can usually have a very low credit score and still qualify). […]
Mortgages After Bankruptcy
A personal bankruptcy stands out as a conspicuous blemish on a consumer’s credit report for as long as 10 years. But the barrier it presents to obtaining a mortgage doesn’t have to last that long. Many individuals who sought bankruptcy protection during the recent recession, which officially ended in 2009, may now be eligible to […]
Americans Face Post-Foreclosure Hell as Wages Garnished, Assets Seized
NEW YORK – Many thousands of Americans who lost their homes in the housing bust, but have since begun to rebuild their finances, are suddenly facing a new foreclosure nightmare: debt collectors are chasing them down for the money they still owe by freezing their bank accounts, garnishing their wages and seizing their assets.By now, […]
A Debt Collector’s Day
Originally published in the New York Times here. Credit Golden Cosmos NOBODY likes debt collectors. But a great many of us have to deal with them. A recent study by the Urban Institute found that roughly one-third of all Americans have a debt in collections reported on their credit file. For many debtors, that […]
The Pros and Cons of Avoiding Credit Cards
Millennials are far more likely than older adults to make do without credit cards. More than 60 percent of millennials — defined as those age 18 to 29 — said they did not have a single major credit card, according to a survey published this week by Bankrate.com. In contrast, 35 percent of adults over […]
Credit Card Offers Are Not Always What They Seem
The offers stuffing your mailbox can sound enticing: Transfer a balance from a high-rate credit card to a new card and pay no interest for six months, a year or even longer. If you’ve been struggling to pay off credit card debt, such offers can help you pay off your balance, at no cost, over […]
Inside the Dark Labyrinthine, and Extremely Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
One afternoon in October 2009, a former banking executive named Aaron Siegel waited impatiently in the master bedroom of a house in Buffalo that served as his office. As he stared at the room’s old fireplace and then out the window to the quiet street beyond, he tried not to think about his investors […]
Help Is on the Way for Repaying Student Loans
If you are struggling with student loans that you took out before October 2007, there is a new, more generous option in the works that may help you manage your debt payments. In June, President Obama signed an executive order that expanded the “pay as you earn” program, known as PAYE. The program caps monthly […]
Credit Scores Could Rise With FICO’s New Model
The creator of one of the most widely used and influential credit scores, FICO, said on Thursday that the latest version of its score would no longer weigh medical debts — which account for about half of all unpaid collections on consumers’ credit reports — as heavily as it did in previous iterations. The newer […]
