Seth Green on financial security and living with less

May 22, 2009

Un-Broke: The Seth Green Cribs Edition – watch more funny videos

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Beware false charities

May 20, 2009

Some scammers have no shame, and will take advantage of your kind and giving nature for their own personal gain. Numerous shysters have seen the advantage of pretending to be a charity in order to get their grubby hands on your sympathetic cash.
But today the FTC is cracking down. It is starting a nationwide sweep targeting [...]

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Credit card agreements must use 12-point font

May 20, 2009

As someone who reads dozens of credit card agreements every month, this may be the most-welcome part of the new credit card legislation:
(d) Minimum type-size and font requirement for credit card applications and disclosures. -All written information, provisions, and terms in or on any application, solicitation, contract, or agreement for any credit card account under [...]

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Senate Passes Bill to Restrict Credit Card Practices

May 20, 2009

Senate Passes Bill to Restrict Credit Card Practices | New York Times

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Why is Obama silent on bankruptcy reform?

May 19, 2009

The Red Tape Chronicles asks whether Obama is “backing the wrong horse” by championing credit card reform while ignoring bankruptcy reform that would allow bankruptcy judges to reduce mortgage loans in bankruptcy—just like they can do for all other debts. Credit card reform is a great thing, of course, but it will have a tiny [...]

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Austan Goolsbee (Obama’s credit card advisor) interviewed by Consumerist

May 18, 2009

(This is part 1 of a 4-part series.)

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Midnight hour at the Capitol

May 15, 2009

A summary of legal legislation, with a focus on consumer bills. Midnight hour at the Capitol | Minnesota Lawyer

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Link roundup

May 14, 2009

Time to clean out my Google Reader queue.

How to complain about: credit report errors | The Red Tape Chronicles
Does it make sense to pay “points” upfront to lower your interest rate? Decoding the Mysterious Mortgage Points Game | Alpha Consumer
What’s The New Credit Card Reform Bill All About? | Consumerist
Stop fighting bankruptcy. When bankruptcy is [...]

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Rebalancing justice scales: New attention to old law helps consumers fight unfair debt-collection practices

May 14, 2009

Rebalancing justice scales: New attention to old law helps consumers fight unfair debt-collection practices | MinnPost

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Stephen Colbert takes on credit card reform

May 13, 2009

The Colbert Report
Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Credit Check

colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor
Gay Marriage

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“I can’t believe we nearly bought this!”

May 13, 2009
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Re-regulation on the Squawk Box

May 11, 2009

This weekend I got embroiled in a discussion with someone who insisted that government regulation caused the economic meltdown. This person is not alone in believing that regulation is always a bad thing, and can only cause harm.
At some point I realized that this was a silly debate to be having, sort of like whether or [...]

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Deal with your debt: file bankruptcy

May 11, 2009

Bankruptcy is sometimes called a “financial weapon of mass destruction.” I think of bankruptcy more as a financial Project Genesis, because after the bomb goes off, you get a fresh start.
Whether to file bankruptcy is a business decision, not a moral one. If a business has more debt than money, it declares bankruptcy or goes out [...]

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Steps to Prevent Identity Theft, and What to Do if It Happens

May 8, 2009

Steps to Prevent Identity Theft, and What to Do if It Happens | NYT

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Rebuilding credit after bankruptcy

May 8, 2009

According to Alex from Queercents, rebuilding credit is a seven-step process:

Clean up your credit report
Learn from your mistakes; do not repeat them
(Carefully) apply for a secured credit card
Or become an authorized user on your partner’s credit card
Pay your bills on time
Do not be in a hurry to incur more debt
Be patient and research your options

Alex [...]

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Deal with your debt: negotiate a settlement

May 7, 2009

Once a debt is in default—meaning you stopped paying it—one option is to attempt to negotiate a settlement with the creditor. (You can try this before you go into default, but creditors are rarely willing to play ball until you prove your poverty—and before they rack up some more fees.)
You could just pay the full [...]

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Banks spent $42.4 million to kill the cramdown

May 6, 2009

Last week, the Senate put the proposed “cramdown” legislation to rest. That legislation would have saved 1.7 million homes, and $300 billion wasted on the foreclosure process. The banking industry was apparently not interested in $300 billion, though. Instead, it spend $42.4 million lobbying senators to kill the bill.
Figures. The astonishingly bad judgment of those [...]

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Deal with your debt; do not ignore it

May 5, 2009

Nobody likes to talk about their debt. Not me, not you, not anybody. But your debts do not like to be ignored. As I wrote in my column for Consumerist yesterday  , if you let your debts go into default and do nothing, it could end up hurting.
Credit card companies in particular want you to [...]

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Forced Arbitration: You Can’t Sue Us For Discrimination

April 30, 2009

Why you should support the Arbitration Fairness Act. Forced Arbitration: You Can’t Sue Us For Discrimination | Consumerist

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The banking industry hates America

April 30, 2009

Why would bankers oppose legislation that would save millions of homes and $300,000,000,000 of their money? They hate America. This is the only conclusion I can come to.
The “cramdown” legislation would have enabled bankruptcy judges to modify home mortgages, which they used to be able to do, anyway. In doing so, millions of homeowners would [...]

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