Headline News Archive

2012

February

09

• Which credit card rewards does the IRS care about?. Citigroup's (C) Citibank recently sent recipients of a special frequent flier mile promotion an unwelcome surprise: a 1099 tax form indicating those bonus miles have…

• States negotiate $26 billion deal for homeowners. After months of painstaking talks, government authorities and five of the nation’s biggest banks have agreed to a $26 billion settlement that could provide relief…

07

• How U. of Charleston cut tuition 22%. After seeing enrollment decline for the first time in a decade, the University of Charleston, in West Virginia, slashed tuition by 22% for the upcoming…

• Get more from a second doctor's opinion. If you're like most people, you're inclined to trust your doctor's advice. According to Gallup, 70% of Americans say they don't feel the need for…

• 610,000 switched banks to protest debit card fees. About 610,000 U.S. bank customers switched to a smaller institution in the last three months of 2011 to protest plans by major banks to impose…

• For many, affordable healthcare hinges on Supreme Court. t remains anyone's guess how the Supreme Court will vote this year on whether Congress can require people to buy insurance as part of President…

• Foreclosure deal doesn’t go far enough. As state and federal officials near completion of a settlement with banks over shoddy foreclosure practices, a question that has loomed over the talks for…

02

• Options to Google’s search services, privacy policy. Over the past few weeks, there’s been quite an uproar over Google and changes to its search services and the privacy policies that govern how…

• Sen. Feinstein backs health insurance rate controls. A high-stakes ballot measure to give state regulators the power to approve health insurance rates in California has landed a heavyweight supporter: U.S. Sen. Dianne…

• Honda loses small claims court suit to consumer. The owner of a Honda Civic hybrid won an unusual Small Claims Court lawsuit Wednesday against the auto giant that some legal experts believe could…

• Obama announces home refinancing plan. President Obama on Wednesday made his latest pitch to lift the nation’s beleaguered housing market, unveiling a series of proposals to help struggling borrowers reduce…

01

• Consumer agency chief's appointment is invalid, GOP senators say. Republican senators warned the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that they believed his recess appointment was invalid and that new agency rules would…

January

31

• Claiming an adult child on your taxes. Your children will always remain in your heart. But if you're like most parents, you don't expect them to always remain in your house. With…

• F.T.C. fines debt collector $2.5 Million. The Federal Trade Commission signaled on Monday that it would continue to crack down on debt collectors who harass consumers for money they may not…

• IRS clarifies whether airline miles are taxable. Frequent-flier miles are taxable? Really? That sentiment sums up the reaction from readers — and particularly accountants and lawmakers — to last week's column on…

• Japanese auto parts makers admit to price-fixing scheme. For more than a decade, executives at several major Japanese auto parts makers met in secret, sometimes speaking in code, to fix prices on wiring…

• N.C. bank commissioner to oversee foreclosure settlement. North Carolina Bank Commissioner Joseph Smith will serve as a monitor to make sure the nation’s largest banks abide by the terms of a multibillion-dollar…

30

• Freddie Mac bets against homeowners. Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-owned mortgage giant, has placed multibillion-dollar bets that pay off if homeowners stay trapped in expensive mortgages with interest rates well above…

26

• Obama initiatives to address foreclosure crisis face hurdles. Two new initiatives from President Obama to address the foreclosure crisis — more help for struggling homeowners and aggressive investigations of financial firms — face…

• How to deal with higher bank fees in 2012. You should expect bank fees to go up again this year. How can that be? Customer outrage just forced Bank of America and several other…

• FAQ: What is Google collecting?. Google announced Tuesday that it will integrate users’ information across Gmail, YouTube, search and 57 other Google services. Google privacy director Alma Whitten, who explained…

• Consumers in the middle of Google-Facebook battle. Google and Facebook might have finally gotten the average consumer riled up about privacy. For the past two years, each company has experimented with different…

25

• Consumer bureau head Cordray testifies on Hill. Republicans in Congress don't much care for the agency that Richard Cordray heads, and they were downright furious over the way he got his job…

24

• Europe weighs tough online privacy law. Europe is considering a sweeping new law that would force Internet companies like Amazon.com and Facebook to obtain explicit consent from consumers about the use…

• College students face stiff competition for financial aid. f worries about paying for college disrupt your sleep, here's news that will keep you up until dawn: More students than ever are competing for…