Payday loan industry targets unemployed

The payday loan industry has found a new and lucrative source of business: the unemployed.

Payday lenders, which typically provide workers with cash advances on their paychecks, are offering the same service to those covered by unemployment insurance.
No job? No problem. A typical unemployed Californian receiving $300 a week in benefits can walk into one of [...]

Tax Credit for Student Loans – Filing the 1098-E

What most college students don’t realize is when paying off their loans, they can write off the interest. Usually students pay the bulk of the interest first. The majority of the principal is paid off later down the line. Also, with the new option of Income-Based Repayment ( IBR ), the borrower only pays off [...]

Repair Credit After Bankruptcy

Repair Credit tip 1. Keep your real accounts you have
Some individuals suppose that credit repair after bankruptcy is much easier if the bills they didn’t shut down in the process are held open and are managed like they are fragile china. Take care to fill these bills on time, every time. Do assure that some [...]

Clean up your own Credit Report

Federal law guarantees you one free credit report each year from each of the bureaus, Equifax (equifax.com), Experian (experian.com) and TransUnion (transunion.com). But you have to go directly to their Web sites for the freebies. Any other site will charge you for a report.
And the free reports do not include your credit scores.
The most common [...]

A 125 home equity loan

A 125 home equity loan is a loan that you can take out against your house and it will exceed the value of the house that is borrowed against. There are some things that you should know about 125 home equity loans if you are planning to borrow money against your home.
When you are looking [...]

Are debt elimination companies for real?

These credit card debt elimination companies will tell you some things that are not entire true. For instance, many of them will claim that your credit card debt is the responsibility of your bank. They will tell you that when your credit was established and the limit on the card set, that the supporting bank [...]

Beware of debt relief scams

It’s a common scam, but you hear the ads on radio and television all the time. They can’t all be lying, right?
“Let us dramatically reduce your debt!” “We can save hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars on your high interest credit card bills!” “Find financial freedom!”
Hogwash.
OK, it’s not all hogwash. But all too many companies make [...]

Protect your credit with a free security freeze

Placing a security freeze on your credit is the best way I know to protect yourself from identity theft. And under a new state law that started October 1, North Carolinians can get security freezes for free online. Check with your state.
Identity thieves use bits of personal information about you, like your date of birth [...]

How to Rebuild Credit, Post-Bankruptcy

My wife and I just emerged from bankruptcy. Before that, we both had excellent credit scores and access to good credit cards with major lenders. Unfortunately, I’ve been laid off three times since 9/11 because of company downsizing, and we had to charge our health insurance COBRA payments and food and other essentials to our [...]

Credit Card Companies’ Biggest Lie

Of all the insults that the consumer banking industry has hurled at the public’s intelligence in the fight over noxious fees—29 percent credit card interest, arbitrary rate hikes, and the rest of its shoddy practices—the most galling is the argument that for the government to intervene in any of this would be to hamper competition [...]

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