Today the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and 15 states announced a slew of lawsuits against companies and individuals for allegedly misleading homeowners and illegally charging them for foreclosure relief that never came. The lawsuits are result of “Operation Mortgage Mismodification,” a joint investigation effort that revealed scams that cost consumers millions of… Read More

Identity theft is far more common than you may think. In fact, 16.6 million people experienced identity theft in 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. That means 7% of people over the age of 16 have experienced identity theft. Protecting yourself from this crime is a serious matter and there’s no shame in being obsessive about… Read More

Credit card security has been in the news a lot lately, with high-profile data breaches at several major retailers. To be clear, there is nothing that credit card users could have done to prevent the loss of their credit card data after they used it to make a purchase. Nevertheless, there are several steps that… Read More

The excitement of innovation tends to overshadow the plight of its victims, but for people whose jobs are becoming obsolete, technological advances can be a little terrifying. Many jobs that existed centuries or just decades ago seem like quaint pieces of history, but inventions like automated machinery, modern refrigeration and mouse traps also represent the… Read More

Goodwill Industries International is investigating a series of apparent data breaches at its stores across the country, KrebsOnSecurity reports. If confirmed, it would be the latest in a slew of credit-card data breaches at major U.S. companies in the last several months, including P.F. Chang’s, Michaels, Sally Beauty Supply, Neiman Marcus and Target. What We… Read More

Here’s something you won’t hear often – or ever: “Student loans are a privilege.” (I Googled it: Six results.) Considering loans make it possible for millions of people to get a college education, they’re something to be thankful for. Yes, college can be ridiculously expensive, loans often don’t cover all the costs and unaffordable debt is a… Read More

There’s a new bill in the Senate aimed at making student loan payments more affordable. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) introduced the Dynamic Student Loan Repayment Act on July 16, which proposes an automatic income-based adjustment to monthly payments for loans exceeding $10,000. The effort follows last month’s unsuccessful attempt by… Read More

In America, we believe that everyone deserves a second chance. If you’ve seen your credit suffer due to bankruptcy, joblessness, medical bills or just a pattern of poor decisions, there is always a way for you to re-establish your credit. The problem is that you must obtain credit in order to build it, but it… Read More

In the modern economy, the responsibility for retirement largely falls to the individual. Being educated about this process can mean the difference between spending your retirement in vacation mode and working an additional decade. To secure the future you want, it’s important to plan. The earlier you start figuring it out (and saving!), the better…. Read More

Paul and Joan Ostroff went into debt trying to give their son, Andrew, a shot at getting past a learning disability so that he might be able to go to college. Joan, a preschool and elementary teacher, knew something wasn’t right and that their son had some learning delays. She had the public school evaluate… Read More