News

2008

April

15

• House holds financial literacy hearing (Consumer Action statement added to the hearing record). The House Financial Services Committee, chaired by Rep. Barney Frank, today holds a hearing on financial literacy and education to examine the effectiveness of governmental and private sector initiatives. April is Financial Literacy Month. Consumer…

• Stimulus payment offers incentive to file taxes. Whatever your excuse is for filing taxes at the last minute – you thrive under pressure, you're lazy, you don't want to pay the IRS, the dog ate your tax form – they're due today.…

• Retailers caught in a wave of bankruptcies. The consumer spending slump and tightening credit markets are unleashing a widening wave of bankruptcies in American retailing, prompting thousands of store closings that are expected to remake suburban malls and downtown shopping districts across…

• Poll: Housing woes won't end soon. A growing majority say they won't buy a home anytime soon, the latest sign of increasing pessimism about the nation's housing crisis, a poll showed Monday. The Associated Press-AOL Money & Finance poll found that…

• Online banking satisfaction up. Banks have been disappointing customers many ways lately — tightening mortgage lending standards, paring back home-equity and credit-card lines and lowering savings interest rates — but they're receiving higher marks for at least one thing:…

14

• What happens to credit card debt after death?. You can't take it with you, but do credit card bills follow you into the grave? Does that debt die with you? Or can it come back to haunt those left behind? There's no one-size-fits-all…

• Foreclosure politics. With foreclosures running at about 20,000 per week, at least 100,000 more families are likely to lose their homes before Congress passes a relief bill. And even then, the measure may fail to stanch the…

• Even credit card offers are ebbing. Since last November, credit card companies have slashed the amount of direct mail they send out, according to figures released by Mintel, a market research firm. Mintel found that fewer pieces had gone out in…

• Co-payments for expensive drugs go way up. Health insurance companies are rapidly adopting a new pricing system for very expensive drugs, asking patients to pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars for prescriptions for medications that may save their lives or slow…

• A call for action on tax scams. The scam goes like this: A bogus tax return using a stolen Social Security number is submitted to the Internal Revenue Service early in the tax-filing season. Because the IRS does not know the return…

• Digital transition could hurt cable customers. For months, TV viewers have been told by government, by industry and by the media that if they already subscribe to cable, there's no need to worry about the coming transition to digital broadcasting. So…

13

• Green initiatives fly some red flags. You can see major movies that are "carbon neutral," buy any flavor of organic yogurt and even watch as Bob Costas recaps Sunday football by candlelight for NBC. With climate change increasingly at the top…

• Rabbit ears fears: Converters clear picture. William Meade of Springfield has three television sets in his house. One is hooked up to cable service, but the other two rely on rabbit-ear antennas to receive broadcast signals. Like millions of TV viewers,…

• Majoring in plastic. Lavina Ramchandani, 20, got an American Express card two months ago so she could pay this semester's tuition at the University of Maryland. Holly Jackson, 19, got a credit card when she needed a laptop.…

• Flyer's bill of rights could cure airport headaches. Airline passengers just can't catch a break. Or can they? Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to scramble for alternative travel arrangements last week after American Airlines, the nation's biggest carrier, canceled more than…

12

• Walking out of mortgage, into years of hurt. The country's two largest sources of mortgage money have a blunt warning for anyone thinking about joining the growing "walkaway" trend, in which homeowners stop making payments and months later send the house keys back…

• Sallie Mae to charge for loans to students. Sallie Mae, the country's largest student lender, announced yesterday that it will start charging students who apply for federally backed loans and cut the type of loans available, citing the turmoil in the credit markets…

11

• Identity thieves tax the system. David Hodge got a shock when he filed his federal tax returns last year. An identity thief had beaten him to it. "I was stunned," says Hodge, a 33-year-old Mount Vernon, N.Y., home-improvement contractor, recalling…

10

• Senate passes bill to ease housing crisis. The Senate today passed a bipartisan package of tax breaks and other steps designed to help businesses and homeowners weather the housing crisis. The measure passed by an impressive 84-12 vote, but even its supporters…

• Take the snail out of rebate mail. Taxpayers have been ringing the Internal Revenue Service telephones in record numbers trying to get answers about the upcoming economic stimulus payments. In a recent report, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration noted that…