News

2011

September

06

• Insurers' rate quote practice unfair. Let's say your barber is increasing the cost of haircuts. Is it fair for other barbers to require that you disclose how much you were being asked to pay before they say how much they'll

01

• Reverse mortgages: Do the benefits outweigh the risks?. The reverse mortgage was invented decades ago to help seniors facing economic hardship access the equity in their homes. Between 1990 and 2010, more than 660,000 reverse mortgages were issued, according to the AARP. Today, the products are

• Tougher rules for credit bureaus could be on the way. Borrowers may soon have more weapons to fight back against erroneous credit reports and credit scores. This includes uncovering discrepancies when a report or score obtained by a consumer differs from the data that land

• Rebuilding after Irene? Watch for contractor scams. Homeowners who found themselves in the sights of Hurricane Irene may soon be targeted by scammers looking to profit from their pain. As attention turns to repair and rebuilding, residents in affected areas should be

August

31

• What’s worse for credit score — foreclosure, short sale, deed in lieu?. You can’t really say that credit scores don’t matter. They do. People can just let the home go to foreclosure, and this will affect their scores for seven years. Or they can do

30

• After Irene, what will insurance cover?. Thousands of East Coast residents whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Irene could find themselves stuck with bills that aren't covered by their homeowners insurance policies.

25

• U.S. may back mortgage refinance plan. The Obama administration is considering further actions to strengthen the housing market, but the bar is high: plans must help a broad swath of homeowners, stimulate the economy and cost next to nothing. One proposal

23

• Foreclosure talks stall. An effort by state attorneys general to take big mortgage servicers to task over faulty foreclosure practices has stalled as financial institutions demand broad legal immunity from other mortgage-related probes. The nationwide effort looking into

18

• Forgiving debt may be the answer. n America’s unenlightened past, men who couldn’t pay their debts were imprisoned. Languishing behind bars deprived them of any chance to repay their creditors, so the practice was stupid as well as cruel.

• New rules would let consumers compare health insurance plans. What would your health insurance cover if you got pregnant? How much could you expect to pay out of pocket if you needed treatment for diabetes? How do your plan’s benefits compare with another

16

• Inflated medical bills mask true cost. It's bad enough that her son has a chronic disease that can send him to the emergency room when the pain becomes unbearable. But Susan Kenyon is also grappling with wildly inflated medical prices that

• Proposal to keep government's big role with mortgage rates. President Obama has directed a small team of advisers to develop a proposal that would keep the government playing a major role in the nation’s mortgage market, extending a federal loan subsidy for most

15

• Taking on Medicare and Medicaid. Editor’s note: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) released a plan in July that he said would achieve $9 trillion in deficit savings over the next decade. Here, we review parts of the proposal. Coburn, a doctor,

09

• Stock market's silver lining for consumers. The stock market sell-off over the past week has created a surprising — albeit likely short-term — silver lining for consumers: ultra-low interest rates. The weekly average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has dropped to 4.39 percent,

04

• Loss of home equity downsizes retirement for many. Paul Trigili, an information technology professional in Las Vegas, is 65, has back problems and would like to retire at the end of the year. There's just one thing standing in his way: his house. Trigili

• Burden of long-term care needs strain families. America is facing a crisis that will make the federal budget deficit look like a simple bank overdraft fee. If we don’t figure out how to provide financial support to the millions of family

02

• EPA gas mileage ratings don't add up in real world. The government will require new cars and trucks to meet a fleetwide average fuel economy standard of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Fat chance. Many motorists know they can't expect to get the mileage they see

July

28

• Elizabeth Warren to step down from consumer agency. Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who has organized the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will step down from her administration advisor position Monday and be replaced as de facto acting director by a top

• Pet insurance: A good deal or rip off?. When it comes to our pets, my wife and I will spend whatever it takes to give them the best medical care possible. Like so many other people today, we consider them to be members

• Consumer agency pick faces battle. Richard Cordray is no stranger to defeat. A soft-spoken man who pads around in socks and admires the writings of Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis, he has run for office in his native Ohio nine