By GARY RIVLIN Published: May 11, 2013 THE first couple of times Alfred J. Carpenter was turned down for a job, he didn’t know what to think. He been laid off early in the recession and then had the bad fortune of tearing tendons in his knee just when he didn’t have health insurance. […]
Credit Card Debt and Death
My Dad Passed Away — Does My Mom Have to Pay His Credit Card Debt? “Dear Steve, Dad recently passed away. He had one credit card in his name, with mom as an authorized user. Balance on the card is approx 10K. All assets were put in mom’s name months ago in case she passed […]
Financial Opposites Try to Tackle Finances Together
Jennifer and Scott Bartone set aside a full day to fine-tune finances and make headway on the money-related tasks that never seem to get done. By TARA SIEGEL BERNARD Published: April 26, 2013 Jennifer and Scott Bartone were married in October after a seven-year courtship. But they did not have a serious conversation about money […]
When a House Is Just a House, and Family Means Home
Joe Raedle/Getty Images Many Florida residents are still struggling to recover from the wave of foreclosures. By NEIL REISNER Published: April 15, 2013 in the New York Times The man who delivered the foreclosure papers was all business. He met my wife, Ruth, in the driveway as she was bringing the kids home and gave […]
A Student Debt Repayment Option for Some Parents
Parents who take out federal Parent Plus loans to help pay for their children’s college education typically don’t qualify for some breaks available to student borrowers themselves, like repayment options that take their income into account. But Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert, says there is a workaround available that may help some parents, especially […]
Mortgages: The Benefits of Counseling
Published: March 28, 2013 Is prepurchase counseling an effective way to prevent buyers from taking on more house than they can afford? A new study from NeighborWorks America, a community development agency, links buyer counseling to significantly lower default rates. In an evaluation of 75,000 mortgages originated from 2007 to 2009, NeighborWorks determined that borrowers […]
Six Secret Credit Scores And How You Can Alter Them
When you sign up for a credit card, you’re making the credit-card company a life partner. It knows where you shop, when, what you buy, whether you pay your debts on time and if you’re a sucker for a balance-transfer offer that leads to high interest rates. It knows a lot more than the credit […]
Student Loan Collection Agencies
A Simpler Way to Complain About Student Loan Collections By ANN CARRNS Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A woman in Los Angeles protests against the high cost of student loans in September. Borrowers who run into trouble with their federal student loans should have an easier time filing complaints about private collection agencies that work […]
Tips for Lowering Your Medical Bills
It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally you can catch a mistake on a restaurant check or a miscalculated receipt from the grocery store. Hospital bills, however, are another matter: as many as 8 out of 10 bills for health care services contain errors, according to Medical Billing Advocates of America. Since Americans spend nearly $7,000 […]
My observations from my recent FDCPA (Fair Debt and Collection Practices Act) conference in Baltimore
I have just returned from the FDCPA Fair Debt Collections Practices Act Seminar sponsored by NACA, The National Association of Consumer Attorneys in Baltimore. I also got to enjoy the Inner Harbor a bit, even with the brisk weather! As many of you know, there is truly no love lost in New Jersey, or nationally, […]
