Headline News Archive

2012

January

03

• Better not to claim Social Security benefits early. The U.S. economy has made modest gains recently. Consumer confidence rose during the fall, and the stock market has stabilized. Meanwhile, employment appears poised

01

• Consumer protection made big gains in 2011. The last year was a remarkable one for consumer protection. Among the wins: A new watchdog agency opened for business, regulators cracked down on a

2011

December

22

• Victims in Countrywide mortgage case could get thousands. Consumers who were victims of mortgage discrimination could get anywhere from $500 to thousands of dollars each as a result of a settlement announced Wednesday by

• Bank of America to pay $335M to settle claims of unfair Countrywide loans. Bank of America agreed Wednesday to pay $335 million to settle federal claims that its Countrywide Financial unit charged black and Hispanic borrowers higher mortgage fees

20

• Tips to avoid car-crash insurance mistakes. AAA forecasts that a remarkable 91.9 million Americans will take passenger-vehicle trips 50 miles or more from home this holiday season -- Dec. 23 through Jan. 2 -- and

• Flexible spending account deadline near. In years past, depleting money in your health care flexible spending account before the end of the year was fairly straightforward. You made a midnight

15

• Mortgage aid program stumbled from the start. "Congratulations" began the letter, dated Sept. 27. Lorraine and Jude Austin, who had battled against foreclosure for two years, were "approved" for $48,113 in federal mortgage assistance,

• 7 secrets to super customer service. Even pros are suckers for flattery Front-line phone reps are cursed at, threatened or belittled seven times a day on average, according to researchers at

• State hopes to break habit of changing car's oil too often. Many automobile owners are spending more than they need on motor oil, believing that it should be changed every 3,000 miles even though almost no manufacturer

• Ryan's new approach to preserving Medicare. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, who has been castigated by Democrats and hailed by Republicans for his plan to privatize Medicare, will on Thursday

13

• Firms caught up in identity theft offer little help to victims. Victims of identity theft will tell you: The shock of being defrauded isn't the worst part. What really stings is having to spend days or

08

• U.S. targets mortgage servicers for poor performance. The Obama administration said on Wednesday it will keep the pressure on two big U.S. banks to help more troubled borrowers from losing their

• White House pushes vote on consumer agency chief. The White House has undertaken an extraordinary push this week to promote the confirmation of a director for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, despite

07

• Stealth commercials masquerade as TV news. Alison Rhodes is passionate about child safety, and in hundreds of TV news interviews, the self-styled “Safety Mom” has talked up products designed to increase

01

• Foreclosure crisis isn’t even halfway over. A new analysis suggests that the tide of home foreclosures isn’t going to recede soon. The report from the Center for Responsible Lending, “Lost

November

29

• Retirement rules of thumb don't always apply. You may have celebrated the new year in 2000 more worried about whether your computer would work than whether you'd have enough for retirement. After all,

23

• Financial finger-pointing turns to regulators. In the whodunit of the financial crisis, Wall Street executives have pointed the blame at all kinds of parties — consumers who lied on their mortgage

22

• Whistleblowers say ignored, punished by lenders. Darcy Parmer ran into trouble soon after she started her job as a fraud analyst at Wells Fargo Bank. Her bosses, she later claimed, were

17

• The smokers’ surcharge. More and more employers are demanding that workers who smoke, are overweight or have high cholesterol shoulder a greater share of their health care costs,

• California attorney general subpoenas Fannie, Freddie. Investigators with the California attorney general's office have subpoenaed information from mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of a wide-ranging inquiry into

10

• Foreclosure backlogs could take decades to clear. Foreclosure sales are moving so slowly in half the states that at the current pace, it will take more than eight years on average to

08

• Credit scores to add more consumer data. Many consumers applying for a mortgage are going to start sharing more personal information with lenders next year, like it or not. FICO scores, the

• Promises made and remade by firms in S.E.C. fraud cases. When Citigroup agreed last month to pay $285 million to settle civil charges that it had defrauded customers during the housing bubble, the Securities and Exchange

02

• 4 million borrowers eligible for foreclosure review. More than 4 million borrowers who have faced foreclosure since early 2009 will have the chance to have their cases reviewed for potential wrongdoing, federal regulators and

October

20

• 10 million could pay more Social Security tax. Seniors got good news on Wednesday: Their Social Security checks will go up 3.6% next year because of a cost-of-living increase. That also means an estimated 10