Outstanding credit card debt increased by $29.2 billion from November to December 2014, reflecting the typical spending frenzy that comes during the holiday season (for comparison, it jumped only $8.2 billion from October to November, according to Federal Reserve data). Of course, a surge in credit card debt is something that can last long after the… Read More

A massive telemarketing robocalling campaign called millions of consumers every day with sales pitches for cruises disguised as political surveys, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday. The total number of calls involved in the campaign was “over a billion,” an agency spokesman said. The FTC and 10 state attorneys general allege that a network of… Read More

Are you gearing up to refinance or buy a home this year? These five things may stop your mortgage dead in its tracks. Here’s what you need to know to prevent your loan application from being denied. 1. Your Credit Score Is Not What You Think It Is This scenario is all too common. A consumer… Read More

When you’re planning a trip to another country, talking with someone who has recently visited your destination can be one of the best ways to gather intel on what to bring — and what to leave at home. It only stands to reason that when it comes to paying for purchases overseas, it helps to talk… Read More

A new narrative is beginning to take shape on the higher education front. At a recent meeting of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, its chairman, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and the chancellors of the University System of Maryland and Vanderbilt University talked about the financial toll that regulatory compliance is… Read More

A new report confirms what we all fear to be true: Americans, no matter their age, are generally terrible at managing their money. In short, we all need to save more. A lot more. This insight comes from Financial Finesse, a think tank geared toward helping people reach financial independence and security, in its 2015 generational… Read More

A reader, Emily, wrote to us after being turned down for an apartment because of a previous eviction for her husband — only he’d never been evicted. Instead, she thinks his records may have been confused with his father’s. Here’s her story: My husband and I tried getting an apartment last month and they denied… Read More

Even if you haven’t yet entered the working world, you can probably assume you will want to retire and some point. While most Americans have similar goals for a debt-free, affordable post-working life, you might not realize how much work (outside the office) it takes to get there. You probably are not saving enough, or… Read More

It’s the privacy version of a “man bites dog” story. During a year widely acknowledged as the worst in data leak history, when perhaps 1 billion records were stolen by hackers, the number of identity theft victims fell. And the amount of money stolen by identity criminals plummeted — at least according to Javelin Strategy and… Read More

It’s one thing to knowingly make decisions that hurt your credit score. We’ve all been there, and sometimes tough decisions must be made. But it’s an entirely different situation to accidentally wreck your credit. In some cases, we make decisions without realizing the impact on our credit. In other cases we may know that certain… Read More