Finance Globe

About 80% of consumers still aren’t checking their credit reports. According to a report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau only about 44 million of 200 million consumers checked their credit report in 2010 and 2011. Ordering a free credit report is fairly simple through AnnualCreditReport.com, the site setup by the three major credit bureaus to fulfill the annual credit report requirements. Despite the availability of these free credit reports, only 16 million ordered through the...

It’s quite common to hear about collection agencies scheming against consumers. Numerous collection agencies have been reprimanded, fined, or shut down by Federal agencies for collecting nonexistent debts from consumers, for charging consumers more than what they owe, or going outside the law to collect even legitimate debts. In a slight twist, one large collection agency has recently been found guilty of swindling not only the businesses that hired them, but also banks and investors. Several...

Anyone who’s ever had an application turned down due to bad credit knows the importance of having a good credit score. Unfortunately, turning a bad credit score into a good one can take several years, especially since you have to wait out the credit reporting time limit. Some people may turn to credit repair services to help them get faster results.What's Legal for Credit Repair CompaniesIt’s been continually stated that credit repair companies don’t have any...

Of all the financial-related things consumers are concerned about – making ends meet, saving for retirement, putting money away for kids’ college – the biggest worry is credit card debt, according to a survey from FICO, creator of the well-known credit score. Federal statistics, however, show that the amount of credit card debt has steadily increased throughout 2012, which brings some question about consumers’ financial priorities. TransUnion, one of the major credit bureaus, expects that credit...

If you’ve checked your credit reports – hopefully you have – then you know that a variety of accounts are reported to the credit bureaus each month. Credit reports include credit cards, mortgage (if you own a house), auto loan (if you’ve borrowed money to purchase a car), student loans, or possibly even debt collections. One of those types of accounts has a bigger impact on credit scores, which are based on credit report information. Do...

One of the main reasons for taking a balance transfer is to make it easier to pay off a high interest rate credit card balance. By transferring your high interest rate balance to a credit card with a 0% balance transfer rate, you eliminate finance charges for at least a few months and more of your payment can go toward reducing the credit card balance. It's too bad 0% balance transfer rates don’t last forever. By...

The Federal Trade Commission says it receives more than 200,000 complaints about telemarketing robocalls each month. Many of the complaints are from “Rachel from Cardholder Services” as part of a credit card rate reduction scam. Thankfully, millions of these calls will cease as the FTC recently gained a court order to stop five companies from making these calls. Rachel's ScamIn this credit card rate reduction scheme, the telemarketer claims to be from cardholder services and says...

Just a few years ago, banks were actually paying customers to sign up for new checking accounts. They were paying existing customers for referring friends and relatives. Meanwhile, existing bank customers enjoyed checking accounts and most of the benefits at no monthly charge. All that's changed.Sign-up perks are a distant memory and the number of free checking accounts is dwindling with less than 40% of banks offering a completely free checking account, according to a Bankrate.com...

Credit cards come with several different APRs: one for purchases, sometimes another for balance transfers, and a higher APR for cash advances. The highest APR of all is the default or penalty rate. The default rate is only charged in certain circumstances and thankfully, there are ways to avoid the expensive APR. Regular APR vs. Default APRTypically your transactions will get the regular rate for that type of transaction, e.g. purchases get the purchases APR, balance...

The number of adults living in shared housing and the number receiving food stamps increased since before the beginning of the recession through 2011, but the there was little change in the number receiving public assistance, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released on Wednesday.The Census Bureau defines shared housing as a home with an adult resident who is neither the householder or the householder’s spouse or cohabiting partner. Adult relatives, roommates, and other unrelated...