Here’s a great New Year’s resolution for you: Stop donating money to cable companies. Because I promise you, their resolution is to take more money from you. Cable will keep downloading increased piles of money from lazy consumers this year, but there’s good news: its stranglehold is starting to slip [Keep reading]
It’s a tricky practice from inside an industry that often mystifies consumers. Consumer groups have called it “debt laundering.” Debt collectors call it “withdrawal.” The strategy is simple, but troubling: If at first you don’t succeed at collecting on a debt, try, try again – by sending it to [Keep reading]
If 2014 was the year of the credit card hack, what will 2015 be? Here’s an early look at candidates — the scams, hacks and hiccups that could trip up the most consumers next year. 1. Hacked Kitchen Appliances and the Internet of Things Even as our cellphones get bigger, technology [Keep reading]
Doing some research for a larger story about the “damage points” associated with having a credit-related boo-boo, I stumbled on this important factoid: A consumer with excellent credit who maxes out a credit card will see a credit score drop of 25 to 45 points. In other words, someone with a superb 780 score [Keep reading]
We’ve long suspected, but now we know: A large part of America’s personal debt problem is medical debt. About half of the unpaid debt entries in credit reports are related to medical bills. Getting sick can ruin a household, leading to pock-marked credit reports, trouble with other borrowing, and eventually [Keep reading]
Free of an old media job, I don’t have to write a tech gift guide this year! So instead, I’m taking a writer’s privilege today, to do something that I hope will help people read. Scrambling for last-minute holiday gifts? Books are great emergency presents. And they are easy to wrap. [Keep reading]
The stakes in the Sony hack keep getting higher. We are all about to get a lesson in asymmetric warfare, and that has me really concerned. Now that the U.S. government has so openly accused North Korea of attacking America, and its way of life, the U.S. has a really [Keep reading]
Two quick thoughts about the Sony hack today. First: Haven’t we all seen (or, not seen) this movie before? The one where a corporation is brought to its knees, allegedly by hackers from a foreign enemy upset about an offensive movie? And second: Where’s the gloating? The hackers’ silence right [Keep reading]
Oct 23, 2012 — The attacks seem straight out of a movie plot: An anonymous note is posted online — usually on a Monday or early Tuesday — declaring that week’s victims. The targets then are besieged at some point during that Tuesday through Thursday stretch. On Friday, the group [Keep reading]
Wireless giant Sprint enabled hidden-fee abuse of its customers for nearly a decade, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleged on Wednesday. Sprint allowed third-party firms to “cram” unwanted services onto consumer bills, and kept about one-third of the proceeds for itself, the CFPB said. In other words, Sprint was complicit [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan