I’m upset. I was due to have my teeth cleaned in January. Since I’ve been busy taking the Dean Ornish heart health program and working on my writing, I just called a couple of weeks ago to get an appointment. What did I learn? My dentist, Dr. Attila Talaber, was in Europe and the other […]
Graduations are coming up and many parents and students are thinking about student debt, which totals $1.63 trillion in the United States. Student loan debt is about $37,600 per borrower. “In the short term, students are not overly optimistic about their financial situation, as 88 percent are concerned about the economy and 80 percent are […]
Paying off student loans is a big job, especially since it usually takes most people years to achieve it. Consumers need to beware of debt relief companies that promise quick loan forgiveness. Scammers claim they’ll help you, for a fee, but their schemes often leave you deeper in debt. The Federal Trade Commission has stopped […]
It’s helpful for consumers to take a look at complaints that are received by agencies and organization to know what to watch out for in their financial lives. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau monitors consumer complaints to determine risks in consumer financial markets and to prioritize agency action. In 2022, the CFPB found: During 2022, […]
Photo: Hudconja A settlement shows that another huge, well-known corporation has engaged in deceptive practices in how it treats its customers. Prudential Financial denied more than 200 life insurance claims although the company collected life insurance premiums from participants for extended periods, the U.S. Department of Labor said Wednesday. Prudential offered group life insurance policies […]
In 2016, I had H&R Block prepare my taxes. It was upsetting because neither the receptionist nor the tax preparer would give me an estimate of what it would cost to prepare my taxes. The tax preparer said he’d do my taxes, then, at the end, if I thought it was too expensive, I could […]
Photo: Minh Nguyen Republicans doing the bidding of Wall Street for years led to the current banking crisis. In 2018, Republicans led an effort, lobbied heavily by the financial industry, that resulted in a law, signed by former President Donald Trump, that gutted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s risk assessment safeguards […]
When you take two consumer problems, telemarketing and extended warranties, and put them together, it can result in disaster. The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement Friday in its case against American Vehicle Protection – who it charged last year with running a telemarketing extended auto warranty scheme that cheated people out of more than […]
One of the best consumer actions in recent years is the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2011. Established after the Great Recession of 2007-08 to set up one federal agency to help consumers with their financial issues, the CFPB has made great strides in improving the position of consumers in the marketplace. […]
In 2022, Americans paid more than $120 billion in interest and fees on credit cards. With interest rates going up, that amount is continuing to increase. For consumers to get the best offers on credit cards to keep their costs down, their repayment records need to be reported to credit bureaus. In 2020, the Consumer […]
