Archive for July, 2008

“Why play fair when you can use nunchucks?”

The Olympus TP-7 Telephone Recording Device (clever name, eh?) is probably the easiest way to record phone calls (from an abusive debt collector, for example) that I have seen. You stick it in your ear, plug it into a recorder, hold your phone normally up against your ear with the earbud in it, and it [...]

“Police say that Balderrama shot herself Tuesday afternoon 90 minutes before her foreclosed home on Duffy Drive was scheduled to be sold at auction. Chief Raymond O’Berg said that Balderrama faxed a letter to her mortgage company at 2:30 p.m., telling them that ‘by the time they foreclosed on the house today she’d be dead.’” [...]

Most Bank Websites Are Insecure | /.

Stretch Your Food Dollar: Rethinking Meat | Queercents

Predatory litigator Monster Cable recently withdrew a patent infringement lawsuit after attorneys from local firm Winthrop & Weinstine filed a motion to dismiss. Monster’s Cable was suing Minnesota company Denco for producing Monster Deer Block, a flavored salt and mineral lick designed to attract wild deer. And apparently easily confused with Monster’s overpriced electronic cables.
Inside [...]

Warning: Seven signs of too much debt | Queercents

10 Things You Might Not Know About Your Credit Card | Consumerist

Beware Long-Term Cardholders With Perfect Payment Histories, Your Credit Lines May Be Slashed | Consumerist

Some of the “tricks and traps” in AFFIL’s Common Credit Cards Tricks and Traps (PDF link) are impossible to avoid. Or nearly so at least. I can’t think of a credit card agreement that does not include a mandatory binding arbitration clause, for example.
But some cards are better than others. When you are looking for [...]

Bush Administration Considering A Takeover Of Freddie And Fanny | Consumerist

When shopping for a car, the following statements mark you as a big sucker:

“I love, love, love this car”
“I need to get a car by tomorrow”
“I need a monthly payment of . . .”
“My trade-in is outside”
“I don’t know anything about leasing”
“My credit is a little spotty”

6 things never to tell a car salesman | [...]

Apparently the Lhasa Apso was making phone calls on a Verizon account. Bad dog! (Interestingly, the dog, Andy, apparently does have an American Express card of his own. No word on whether that account is in default.)
$142 Collection Bill Sent To Couple’s Dog | KCRA

As part of our summer focus on credit cards, AFFIL compiled this list of common tricks and traps (PDF). We all know that credit card contracts are designed to increase the likelihood that cardholders pay high fees and get charged high interest rates. So while you will be hard pressed to find a [...]

Obama Losing Voters Over FISA Support (I may be one of them. I want a president who will protect citizens, not lawbreaking corporations.) | /.

“The thrust of the law is to require mortgage servicers to exhaust all avenues in order to contact borrowers and negotiate modified terms before foreclosing. It also provides limited protections for tenants affected by landlords’ foreclosures and imposes duties on foreclosing servicers to maintain properties.” California Foreclosure Law Passed | Consumer Law & Policy

Probably, according to a poll by CreditCards.com.
Religious views, politics, age, weight and even health problems are more palatable topics of conversation than credit card debt . . . .
Not surprising, really, but the poll results do illustrate one of many reasons why so many Americans never deal with their debt problems: most refuse to even [...]

Fed to Issue New Mortgage Lending Regulations Next Week | Consumer Law & Policy

Obama would ease bankruptcy for military, seniors, disaster victims; says McCain backs bankers | StarTribune

The Macys, a San Francisco couple, bought a million-dollar, six-unit apartment building in San Francisco, and decided to move out all the tenants and raise the rents (this is, of course, illegal in SF, but the Macys are not the sort of people who worry about legalities).
When the tenants fought the eviction notices, the Macys [...]