Consumers were charged nearly $50 million in illegal overdraft fees by Alabama-based Regions bank, federal regulators said Tuesday. The bank, which operates in 16 states, failed to get consumers to opt-in to overdraft coverage, failed to stop charging illegal fees for nearly a year after it discovered the activity and [Keep reading]
Confidence has a lot to do with the economy, as does trust. After all, you wouldn’t buy a home if you didn’t believe you’d have a decent income for the next 30 or so years. And there’s short-term effects, too: You are probably planning your summer vacation right now. How confident [Keep reading]
Those who work in the housing sales industry are putting a lot of effort into creating positive vibes around home buying right now. For example: last week’s murky “boomerang buyers” claim from from the National Association of Realtors that roughly 1 million Americans who lost their homes during the recession [Keep reading]
There was recently a very public debate about how awful airline travel is…vs. how whiney airline passengers are. In the New Yorker, Tim Wu argued that airlines actually create “calculated misery,” in order to trick you into paying more. Criminy, people pay extra now just to board the airplane early,theoretically [Keep reading]
A Georgia firm called millions of consumers attempting to
Starbucks said this week it is “doubling down” on its free college offer, expanding from two years to four years the ambitious tuition reimbursement program it announced in 2014. The announcement also deals with criticism the program has received because student/employees had been required to shell out considerable sums and [Keep reading]
Travell Thomas is desperately trying to save his business, or at least part of it. His debt collection firm, Four Star Resolution, was raided during the morning on Feb. 11, as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission. Employees were told to leave immediately. A temporary restraining [Keep reading]
Have you ever grabbed your smartphone on your way to the bathroom? Yes, I know you have. All the evidence you need that we are all too dependent on our smartphones. For most of us, that’s a First World problem. But for a surprisingly large segment of the American population, [Keep reading]
Payday lenders would face a new set of restrictions under rules being proposed Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The rules include requirements that lenders ensure borrowers have the ability to repay the loans, and limits to the number of times consumers can renew the loans. The proposal covers [Keep reading]
It’s fun to watch the wireless carriers struggle to keep their prices sky-high while still dipping into the “low end” of the market. It’s quite a contorted two-step. It requires downgrading certain phones and services, or otherwise hampering them from working at full efficiency to make a low-value product, but [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan