Author: admin

Next time I hear someone complain about high interest rates on credit cards in the U.S., I’ll be sure to pass this story along to them. Wal-Mart de Mexico, which is known as Walmex, plans to ramp up its credit-card business in Mexico by the end of the year, according to Bloomberg sources. All told,…

If you find an error on your credit report — how do you get it corrected? What’s more, what if you don’t get any satisfaction when you do attempt to fix what ails you? SmartMoney investigated the world of credit bureaus and detailed its findings in a story published today. From SmartMoney:Credit-report accuracy is profoundly…

Herb Weisbaum has a piece over at MSNBC talking about the perils of using a debit card at the gas pump. Skimming has been around for a long time, but it looks as though crooks are getting better at it. While I typically eschew debit-card use, I’m not a rabid hater of them. But, as…

I love to go back and look at old news stories. They can often be instructive. A reader of mine tipped me off to an old New York Times story from September 30, 1999. The story detailed Fannie Mae’s plan to ease credit requirements so that more people could get into a home. And Fannie…

I do not use bill-pay services. Instead, I pay all of my bills by visiting the sites of my various creditors. As a result, I am not qualified to analyze and evaluate the various bill-pay products on the market. But I do have Mary Pilon, a Wall Street Journal reporter, so it’s all good. Indeed,…

Last week I got an email from my friend Steve Rhode. Steve is president of the Myvesta foundation, and founder of GetOutOfDebt.org. His email message was brief: “In light of all the people out there that are facing debt problems now … I wanted you to see this.” The “this” turned out to be a…

The market giveth and the market taketh away. When home prices and stock prices were soaring, people felt more wealthy. Now that they’re both in decline, people don’t feel nearly as flush. Robert J. Samuelson, a columnist writing in the Washington Post, has a piece on the wealth-effect phenomenon. Samuelson has been a reporter for…

Would you take a pay cut to save your job? A pay cut of 10%? Of 25%? Of 50%?! The Chicago Tribune has an interesting story out this morning. The Trib uses a Chicago company to make its point: layoffs, in some cases, may be the more preferable thing to do (both for the business…

This has to be one of the worst feelings imaginable. I have never lost a wallet. And I have never had a credit card stolen. However, I have had a credit card number compromised. It’s a pretty helpless feeling (aside from being a royal pain in the ass to deal with). Still, I only had…

I was so busy yesterday that I forgot about the Federal Reserve’s G.19 consumer credit release. The Fed reported that “consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 3-3/4 percent in August. Revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 3/4 percent, and non-revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 5-1/2 percent.” On a…