News

2007

July

06

• Will high court ruling impact discount shopping?. There's Prada at T.J. Maxx, Lilly Pulitzer at Syms and a department full of Diesel, Lucky and other designer jeans at Loehmann's — high-end labels crowding the racks of off-price retailers. Is the world of…

05

• Airline delays grew in July. Fresh numbers from the U.S. Department of Transportation underscore the bleakness of 2007 for air travelers. Just 78% of U.S. flights arrived on time in May, the industry's worst performance for that month since 2004,…

04

• Higher set-top box rates coming. Cable companies are planning to charge more for set-top boxes to help pay for new, more expensive versions mandated by the Federal Communications Commission. They say the price increases are a result of the government's…

03

• Scheme preys on desperate homeowners. With the housing market in decline, financial predators are finding yet another way to take advantage of people who fall behind on their payments. The schemes take various forms and often involve promises to distressed…

• Home equity loan late payments rise. Late payments on home equity loans climbed to a 1 1/2-year high in the opening quarter of this year, while delinquencies on credit card bills fell, painting a mixed picture of how people are managing…

• Good credit score helps your mortgage rate. Sales of existing homes fell to a four-year low last month, and the supply of homes for sale was up, which is happy news for house hunters. But unless you're sitting on a mountain of…

02

• Stuck without Airlines Passenger Bill of Rights. A planeful of passengers traveling on Continental from Amsterdam to Newark, N.J., in mid-June suffered through stinking, overflowing toilets during an arduous two-day journey that included an overnight stop in Ireland to make airplane repairs…

• Mortgage guidance is tightened. Federal bank regulators Friday issued tougher standards for higher-cost adjustable rate subprime mortgages, going after common but controversial practices such as penalties for early prepayment of loans, mortgages based on stated rather than documented income…

June

30

• Regulators call for better mortgage underwriting. The Federal Reserve Board and other regulators urged lenders yesterday to more closely assess the ability of borrowers to repay certain types of home mortgages linked to an alarming rise in delinquencies and foreclosures. The…

• Traditional mortgage solutions still exist. What kind of financing is possible for home buyers and sellers worried about rising mortgage rates, Wall Street bond-market jitters and soft home prices? Plenty. Although certain aspects of today's post-boom marketplace may look scary…

28

• Long term care insurance has pros, cons. Long-term care insurance is a wonderful thing," says Judy Koehler, a state government worker in Southfield, Mich. Koehler's mother, Lillian Jurcak, spent four months in a hospital in 1998 with emphysema before she died. Long-term…

• Even high earning families can struggle. The car payment was due. Creditors kept calling. Every single credit card was at its maximum. Steve and Nicole Brown could barely scrape by living paycheck to paycheck, but they never expected to find themselves…

25

• Many in U.S. shun bank accounts. Grandma stuffing money under the mattress isn't the only one living outside the banking system. As many as 28 million people in the United States are forgoing traditional financial institutions because of mistrust, cultural and…

• Your aging parents and you. A series in USA Today explores the financial and emotional costs of helping aging parents. First you get phone calls that seem kind of strange. Mom is quitting her bridge club because "they think I'm…

23

• Mortgage forms sow confusion. With mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures soaring, federal researchers have identified a key contributing factor: Many borrowers simply do not understand their mortgages - especially subprime loans that come with complex features and costly penalties. As…

21

• Wireless choice far from clear. Picking a wireless-phone service is supposed to have gotten easy. Competition and consolidation over the past couple of years have led most companies to adopt the same basic price structure, making it easy to compare…

• Congress advances student loan overhaul. Democrats in Congress are pushing to overhaul the nation's student loan system with legislation that would cut federal subsidies to lending companies by as much as $19 billion, channel most of those savings to student…

• Wal-Mart expands banking services. Wal-Mart is expanding its financial services, offering check cashing and money orders along with a new prepaid debit card in its ongoing effort to persuade shoppers to spend more time and money in its stores.…

20

• FTC, Fed criticized over credit reports. Lawmakers accused federal regulators yesterday of moving too slowly to implement rules to help consumers fix errors on their credit reports. The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve were targeted in a House hearing…

19

• Quietly, AT&T discounts DSL. Companies usually like to promote their best deals. Not so with AT&T, which over the weekend started offering high-speed Internet service for about half its normal price in some states. The $10-a-month-deal, which was not…