News

2012

November

13

• New long-term care policies offer more options. As Americans are living longer they are facing the staggering cost of nursing homes and assisted-living care, often without a financial safety net. Long-term-care insurance is one way to prepare for the growing expenses, but

06

• Low-interest government loans to help with storm damage. Even if you don’t own a business, you may be eligible for a disaster loan from the federal Small Business Administration to help repair damage to your home from Hurricane Sandy. Odd as

01

• Filing insurance claims after Sandy: What to expect. Damaging winds. Fire. Floods. It's bad enough that millions of homeowners had to endure the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, but now many have to deal with their insurance companies. Since claims are processed on a

• Beware of scam attempts by ‘storm chasers’. In the aftermath of fires, blizzards, tornadoes, earthquakes or hurricanes, the crooks come out to play. As the East Coast begins to recover from Hurricane Sandy, the “storm chasers” — as the Better Business Bureau calls

October

30

• Home insurance: What to do now and when storm ends. The best thing you could have done before Hurricane Sandy struck was make an inventory of your house and your possessions. There's even an app for that if you still want to do it. Go

• Hurricane may test limits of homeowners’ insurance. With rain flooding the Washington area, many homeowners may end up looking to their insurance to cover water damage to their homes or belongings. But standard homeowners insurance doesn’t cover flooding, warns the federal

26

• Ohio man wth near-perfect credit score. Tom Pavelka has a nice 3,000-square-foot home in Westlake, a good government job, two British sports cars and an adoring wife of 25 years. But he has one more thing that most people would really, really

• Credit report errors often a nightmare to fix. A federal law is supposed to guarantee that credit report errors get fixed. So why do some people wind up spending months or even years trying to remove legitimate errors that are ruining their credit?

25

• Government crusade against mortgage lenders. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday accused Bank of America of selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac thousands of shoddy mortgages that caused more than $1 billion in losses, the latest in a string of government cases against

24

• CFPB issues rules for debt collectors. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday unveiled new rules for supervising large debt-collection firms, marking the first time that industry will be subject to federal oversight. Starting Jan. 2, examiners at the bureau will begin

• Can’t fix error in your credit report? Call CFPB. If there’s something’s strange in your credit report, who you gonna call? Not Ghostbusters. If you haven’t been successful in getting a credit bureau to address problems with inaccurate information in your

23

• Target, Rite Aid, Walgreens refill drugs without OK. Ivor Davis received a call recently from the Target pharmacy near his home in Ventura. He was informed he could pick up a refill of medication for his wife, Sally, who is battling pancreatic cancer.

16

• Three systems to keep teen drivers safe. Automakers are starting to use technology to make sure parents can keep their young drivers safe behind the wheel. It's easy to see why parents are constantly worried as soon as a teen gets hold

11

• Wells Fargo accused in U.S. mortgage fraud lawsuit. Federal officials unleashed a series of legal assaults on the financial industry, targeting actions they said helped trigger the housing market collapse and then attempted to take advantage of desperate homeowners left in its wake.

09

• CVS customers say prescription refills weren't OKd. George Engelke manages his CVS prescriptions online. If he needs more of a medicine, he orders it. If he's going to be away from his Corona del Mar home, he tells the pharmacy where to

02

• Many states not prepared for health-care law. More than three dozen states could be unprepared or unwilling to set up the insurance marketplaces called for under the 2010 health-care law, leaving at least part of the task up to the federal government, according

September

30

• Hospitals to be fined for readmitted patients. If you or an elderly relative have been hospitalized recently and noticed extra attention when the time came to be discharged, there's more to it than good customer service. As of Monday, Medicare will start

28

• iPhone 5 insurance: Should you get it?. So, you just got an iPhone 5, or you're thinking about getting an iPhone 5, and you're wondering whether you should insure it. Replacing a broken iPhone is more expensive than you may realize. The new iPhone

• Rental car companies agree not to use recalled vehicles. The four largest U.S. rental car companies have agreed to park vehicles facing a recall until the defect has been repaired, and lent their support to legislation to make such a policy the law.

25

• Health insurance costs speed up. U.S. spending on health insurance grew at an accelerated rate in 2011, breaking a two-year trend of smaller cost increases. The culprit, a new study suggests, is not Americans seeking more treatment but rather rapid