America’s housing market continued its staggering post-recession rise in 2016, as many regions surpassed their pre-recession-bubble highs. With interest rates finally rising, might some of those places be primed for a fall…or at least a pause? The list of U.S. areas that could be hurt most by rising mortgage costs [Keep reading]
Angry Starbucks customers keep writing me to say their bank accounts are being drained via the coffee giant’s popular mobile app, more than a year after I first reported the disturbing problem. Such a heist ruined Jenna Veeve Farag’s Christmas morning. “They were able to wipe out my checking account,” she [Keep reading]
Equifax and Trans Union were smacked by federal regulators on the first business day of the year, as the credit bureau giants will pay millions to settle allegations they deceptively sold and advertised free credit reports and credit score products. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says the two giant credit bureaus [Keep reading]
Interest rates are going up, and the time to prepare yourself and your money is now. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates on December 14 for only the second time in a decade. You probably saw some headlines about mortgage rates or credit card costs and then went back [Keep reading]
Because I spend so much time traveling for work, for the past 20 years or so, I’ve made a calendar each year for my family and friends. It’s my way of saying, “Here’s what I’ve been up to for the past 12 months when I probably should have been spending [Keep reading]
Could Amazon’s Alexa be a tattletale? Yes, as could any Internet-connected device in your home, we were all reminded this week. News outlets lit up on Tuesday with news that Amazon had been served with a search warrant in a murder case, as detectives in Bentonville, Ark., want to know [Keep reading]
This might be the first time a golf ball has caused a denial of service attack on a major website. And…just in time for Christmas! It’s a story that could only happen in 21st Century America. Costco golf ball fans crushed the warehouse store’s website on Wednesday, rushing to fill [Keep reading]
Most American adults have a credit score attached to their name. The score directly impacts each consumer’s cost of obtaining credit. Lower scores mean higher interest rates for credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, and so on. The same goes for if you are looking to buy a vehicle like a [Keep reading]
With the election of Donald Trump as president, the future of Obamacare is uncertain. But whatever changes come to the way Americans pay for health care, one thing seems certain: A growing number will pay with their own money using pre-tax dollars through health savings accounts or flexible spending accounts. [Keep reading]
It’s very hard to make privacy and security sexy. The folks at Mozilla and the Tactical Technology Collective have done just that this month with a clever art installation/ pop-up shop in lower Manhattan called “The Glass Room.” The Glass Room aims to inform and challenge visitors by making them [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan