Small merchants who sued the credit card associations alleging a conspiracy connected to the conversion to chip credit and debit cards may proceed with their lawsuit, a judge has ruled. Billions of dollars could be at stake. California federal court Judge William Alsup ruled Sept. 30 that a set of [Keep reading]
You probably can’t help but follow the continually unfolding fake account scandal at Wells Fargo. When that story first broke, I wrote that the Wells way to do business – perverse incentives that encourage underpaid employees to cheat their fellow woman and man – is common. Well, today brought more [Keep reading]
Elizabeth Warren rightly eviscerated Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf at today’s hearing on that bank’s wide-ranging scandal. She connected the dots neatly, showing that Stumpf made perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in salary and stock while presiding over a crime involving two million fake consumer accounts. She then made the [Keep reading]
In another sign that the housing market is beginning to resemble its pre-recession heyday, house flipping is back in style with the number Fix and Flip Loans being provided increasing massively. Getting into property development can be intimidating – if you wish to get into the business, then check out [Keep reading]
DirecTV has wasted a lot of my time this week, and it tried to take a lot of my money, too. I’ll fill you in on the details below, but you already know the story. I canceled service. I was told my bill was paid. Months later I was hit [Keep reading]
Heather Young was nearly 30 and staring down $75,000 in student loan debt when she a made a choice. “I was paying almost $600 a month just in interest — $6,700 a year,” she said, and there wasn’t much she could do about that. “So I thought, ‘I can’t take [Keep reading]
New car loans continue to set all kinds of records — average monthly payments are now essentially $500 — and a long-feared subprime lending bubble has yet to show signs of popping. But suddenly slumping auto sales raise plenty of questions about the overall health of the car sales market. [Keep reading]
Whenever I get in a dispute with a customer service agent, I try to humanize the dialog. “Do you think this is fair?” I’ll ask. And if I can pierce the corporate-speak at all, I usually saying something like, “Look, you are I have way more in common than you and [Keep reading]
Young folks have found a new use for “gift” cards. They are buying them for themselves. A new report issued this week by analyst firm Mercator Advisory Group found a big jump in purchase of “retailer-specific” gift cards among millennials. “Nearly 3 in 5 young adult respondents indicated they bought [Keep reading]
Frustration among Starbucks workers who say their hours and pay have been slashed took an ugly turn this week as it spilled awkwardly onto forums at Reddit used by employees to “venti” about the coffee giant. You might recall this summer’s controversy, as workers complained that labor cutbacks left many scrambling for hours. Some baristas said shifts [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan