Archive for April, 2008

I learned a curious fact in the course of an arbitration proceeding with the National Arbitration Forum. Once either party obtains a stay of the arbitration, the opposing party has 15 days to file an objection. After that 15 days is up, apparently only the party that requested the stay can lift it.
In other words, [...]

I don’t watch legal shows on TV, because they are so far from reality that they make me crazy, but this clip from Boston Legal, is worth watching. It is of course fictional, but as a comment on the reality of the Court it is the cold hard truth, more real than the fictions [...]

Boy I hope this is a typo. Click for the actual, redacted statement.

I am pleased to welcome Jim Campen and Sarah Byrnes from Americans for Fairness in Lending to Caveat Emptor. Sarah will be posting weekly, and Jim will chime in from time to time, as well.
AFFIL stands for the proposition that maybe the lending industry could use a little regulation, after all (hey, Judge Posner thinks [...]

NYT on how Moody’s triple-A security ratings led to the subprime meltdown. | crosspost: Consumerist

Deregulation refers to the point at which the U.S. government threw up its hands and said “all right banks, power companies, airlines, etc., do whatever you want!” and the deregulated industries had a big party. Eminent jurist and economic theorist Richard Posner says that might have been a mistake: “a tighter ceiling should be placed [...]

Mark Ireland, former Minnesota Assistant Attorney General, took a look at what the three remaining presidential candidates are saying about the foreclosure crisis and translated their campaign-speak into good ol’ American English.
According to Ireland’s commentary, only Obama has a real plan. He would increase penalties for fraudulent lending, create a foreclosure-prevention fund, create a standardized [...]

Starting May 5th, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United, and US Airways are limiting coach passengers to one checked bag per passenger. No biggie if you travel light anyway. Business and first-class passengers will get an extra bag or two, but beware of the excess luggage fees.

Call it what you will, the borrower bailout/rescue/whatever does not seem to be working. Foreclosures are still on the rise along with defaults and sad stories. And while those numbers go up, the economy continues to worsen.
This is not doing the banks any good, either. Banks lose a ton of money every time they have [...]

Want to pay your wireless bill in an AT&T store? That’ll be $2 extra for the “privilege” of handing it to a clerk. Want to pay your credit card bill over the phone? That will be $15.
The disparate impact of policies designed to discourage consumers from paying in cash–like the AT&T’s in-store charge–falls squarely on [...]

TigerDirect bought CompUSA, and just announced a grand re-opening of 15 stores and the regular opening of one store. [crosspost: Consumerist]

To add (just) insult to (just) injury, a Florida judge awarded $518,301 to Angela Williams’s attorneys (PDF link). Ms. Williams recently won almost $3 million in a lawsuit against Equifax for Equifax’s refusal to fix her credit report after her identity was stolen.
While it may not be obvious when a consumer receives such a high [...]

Alex Stenback of Behind the Mortgage recently posted the LendingTree data breach story seen here [and here], and his posting attracted a provocative comment regarding LendingTree’s lending practices. In short, the commenter alleged that LendingTree does not let banks compete, but has its own internal lending division (Home Loan Center) that does all the “competing.”

More on the HELOC freeze from SmartMoney.com (with a shout out to yours truly).

There is no state bankruptcy law. Somebody better tell the Los Angeles Chronicle, which just did a story on the differences between Texas, Las Vegas (what?—there is certainly no city bankruptcy law), and Florida bankruptcy laws. Mislead much?

This Payday America store is going into a huge space across from one of my favorite coffee shops in Minneapolis.

This inexpensive (~$15) paint thickness tester is a great way to help detect cars that may have been in accidents, no matter how squeaky-clean their title is. The paint thickness tester takes a reference value anywhere on the vehicle, and then tests other locations for uniformity. Uneven paint is a good indication that the car [...]

You know who I’ll bet is really happy about the stimulus checks coming next month? Debt collectors. Tax refund is (usually) happy season for debt collectors, and this year they get two bites at the apple.

It’s bad enough that identity thieves are now resorting to brick-and-mortar thievery, according to the Red Tape Chronicles, now mortgage lenders are stealing personal financial information, too. Apparently, some former LendingTree employees helped some unnamed mortgage lenders to hack into the LendingTree system and steal information for LendingTree customers from 2006 to early 2008.
LendingTree notified [...]