Archive for June, 2007

[Consumerist crosspost]
With the shenanigans that go on with automatic billing, I have been giving serious thought to switching to a prepaid model with as many services as possible. The most obvious place to start would be my cell phone, so I looked carefully at what it would cost to switch to a prepaid model with [...]

[Consumerist crosspost]
The hearings on “Improving Credit Card Consumer Protection: Recent Industry and Regulatory Initiatives” (watch and read transcripts here) in the House of Reps continues the recent trend of Congressional credit-industry criticism. You will notice only two witnesses representing consumer interests were invited: Kathleen Keest of the Center for Responsible Lending and Ed Mierzwinski of [...]

Nina Kay MacDermid, who suffered from bipolar disorder, opened three Discover card accounts in her own and her husband’s name. She hid this from her husband, using a post office box to receive the cards. She used the cards to purchase a number of items, from gas to exotic cats. In addition to a history [...]

The Supreme Court handed down two anticipated FCRA decisions yesterday, Safeco v. Burr and Geico v. Edo. Consumer Law & Policy has a detailed report on the decisions, and will no doubt analyze them in greater detail in the coming days. In brief, the cases were a victory for consumers, but not quite cause for [...]

The LA Times has an amusing yet serious article on why you should not actually burn your mortgage once you have paid it off. Besides the obvious danger of catching your house on fire, you will need evidence that your loan is paid in full if and when you decide to sell. You need the [...]

MSN columnist Liz Pulliam Weston recently wrote an article on the statute(s) of limitations on debt. The article’s main thrust is summed up well by the title and subtitle: “Is there a statute of limitations on debt? Yes, the clock ticks on credit-report scars and on the debts themselves. But that doesn’t necessarily get you [...]

Minnesota U.S. District Court Judge James Rosenbaum is apparently a big fan of the Paul Newman/Robert Redford flick, The Sting. Or so it seems, at least, from his highly entertaining opinion in In re UnitedHealth Group (PDF link, thanks WSJ Law Blog!)

It is a poker axiom that if a player has his knees under the [...]

I met with a potential client today and learned about a new-to-me shady debt collection practice. The law firm in question served a complaint on the debtor, who failed to answer because she did not realize that she (effectively) had no rights unless she showed up in court to assert them. She also didn’t talk [...]

John Goolsby has a great, simple sheet of guidelines for victims of identity theft. At the top of the list:

File a police report;
Place a fraud alert on each of your credit reports;
Close any accounts opened fraudulently or that were tampered with; and
File a complaint with the FTC

After taking those crucial initial steps, spend some time [...]