Jim Mathes took one bad step out of his apartment in early September and wrenched his back. The pain was so intense he had to crawl back inside on all fours. He needed medical care, but there was no chance he could get himself down three flights of stairs to [Keep reading]
In most states, it’s illegal to over-serve patrons in bars. A law proposed in Michigan would make it illegal to under-serve them, too. The legislation would ban bars and restaurants from delivering anything less than 16 ounces when a customer orders a “pint” of beer. There’s no research to suggest [Keep reading]
Debt settlement firms that require upfront payments continue to find themselves in the cross-hairs of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. On Thursday, the agency announced it filed a complaint against a Washington state payment processor, Meracord LLC, alleging it provides the financial structure that enables collection of illegal upfront fees from consumers [Keep reading]
ATM fees are up, overdraft fees are up, and the availability of free checking accounts is down, according to a new survey. But the rate of bad news is slowly, according to the data collected by BankRate.com. At least that’s something. Consumers fork over an average of $4.13 to access [Keep reading]
When Mariano pitched his first game for the New York Yankees, in May 1995, I arrived in Seattle to start my internship at MSNBC.com. I ‘retired’ in August, my career there almost precisely parallel to his – at least in time. That’s why we love sports so much. Baseball seasons [Keep reading]
I was an early adpoter or Internet commenting, and reviews, and I still believe in their power. Writing consumers stories for MSNBC.com, it was incredible how quickly I would learn about the next gotcha or hidden fee when comments piled up lambasting corporations. To this day, I never buy any [Keep reading]
A California man tricked elderly Americans out of $11 million using phony sweepstakes award letters, the Federal Trade Commission alleged Monday while announcing it had sued to stop the “scam.” Liam I. Moran, of Ventura, Calif., allegedly sent out more than 3.7 million letters during the past two years, many [Keep reading]
Mo day at Yankee Stadium. A little hero worships once in a while is ok….if you pick the right heroes. I’ll have more thoughts on Mariano Rivera later this week, but for now, if you wanted to be at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, but couldn’t, here’s a flavor of it [Keep reading]
Americans’ on-again, off-again love affair with cars is definitely back on. New car sales jumped 17% last month, to 1.5 million, the highest level since the beginning of the Great Recession. Consumers are buying cars even while they remain reluctant to spend on other big-ticket items, and it makes sense [Keep reading]
Federal regulators said Thursday that banking giant JP Morgan Chase must refund $309 million to 2.1 million credit card holders for alleged deception in credit card “add-on” services like credit monitoring and ID theft protection. The “abusive practices” took place during a seven-year span from 2005 to 2012, according to [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan