Headline News Archive

2007

October

19

• Homeowners: Sell it yourself. The last time Sabrina Williams sold a home herself, she received a solid offer the first week, got her asking price of $319,000 and saved…

18

• Senator goes after cell phone fees, contracts. Some cell phone companies charge their users $100 to $200 to end a contract no matter what the reason and disguise their own charges as…

17

• House votes to extend ban on Internet taxes. Fear about future tax revenue shortfalls at the state and local levels helped derail a congressional push Tuesday for a permanent federal ban on Internet…

• Time Warner customers misled by AT&T ad. An ad from AT&T that ran the other day in these pages and elsewhere warned that some Time Warner Cable customers are in danger of…

• Airlines may never achieve top customer service. Maybe all the hubbub about flight delays and shoddy service is beginning to register with the USA's big airlines. After cutting costs in Chapter 11…

16

• Choose credit cards by how you use them. Americans have a complicated relationship with credit cards. Most of us won't leave home without them. But ask the average consumer how she feels about…

• Home Insurers Canceling in East. It is 1,200 miles from the coastline where Hurricane Katrina touched land two years ago to the neat colonial-style home here where James Gray, a…

15

• Peer-to-peer lending: a solution for strapped consumers. A YEAR AGO, Nicole Newberry was in a financial hole so deep that she had trouble making the minimum payments on her credit cards. Worse,…

• National Defense Department investigate consumer's finance and credit report (Chinese). 【美聯社紐約十四日電】最新公布的文件顯示，國防部911恐襲後寄出的數百封索取顧客金融紀錄的秘密信件，反映出該機構內部系統缺乏統一的協作和嚴格的監管，造成濫權和越權現象嚴重。 美國公民自由聯盟(ACLU)遵照「資訊自由法案」的規定，拿到一套經過修改的五角大廈文件。該組織聲稱，對手中455份「國家安全信件」的分析顯示，國防部與聯邦調查局聯合避開法律規定，越權獲取顧客的金融和信用紀錄。

• NYC study: Minorities pay more for mortgages. Home buyers in predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods in New York City were more likely to get their mortgages last year from a subprime lender…

14

• When there's a will, there's a way online. John Chuang of South Pasadena, Calif., became a father in 2005, he and his wife, Sulynn, knew that they needed a will. But Mr. Chuang,…

• The owners who can't hire and fire. Investors may have hoped that the Securities and Exchange Commission would do the right thing and allow them a much more active role in governance…

13

• Agency warns of cellphone scam. An e-mail warning consumers that cellphone numbers will soon be released to telemarketers is making the rounds again, and government officials have a key detail…

11

• Countering credit card marketing on campus. Campus credit-card marketers are out of control and entrapping students into years of debt, say a national consumer group and a coalition of college officials…

• Industry alliance aims to prevent foreclosures. The Bush administration announced a new mortgage industry coalition on Wednesday aimed at helping homeowners avoid being trapped in a rising tide of foreclosures. Treasury…

• Insurer to pay up to $500,000 in probe. Insurer HealthMarkets — under investigation by 36 states and facing a lawsuit by the Massachusetts attorney general — has agreed to pay up to $500,000…

• Coalición busca evitar embargos de casas. Los principales actores del sector hipotecario en Estados Unidos, como son los bancos, los intermediarios inmobiliarios y la administración federal, han lanzado una campaña para…

10

• Nuevo plan de espionaje protege la privacidad. Los demócratas de la Cámara de Representantes presentaron ayer un proyecto de ley de escuchas electrónicas que da a la Agencia Nacional de Seguridad (NSA)…

09

• Blocking the card sharks. Pam Gear of Newbury Township [Ohio] is an avid bargain hunter who scours off-price stores on a regular basis for top-quality, low-priced merchandise. And during…

08

• Hold on, my wallet is ringing. PHILIPPINES - It's Thursday, so 18-year-old Dennis Tiangco [of San Miquel] is off to the bank to collect his weekly allowance, zapped by his mother…

• American Dream becomes debtor's nightmare. Soledad Aviles dreamed for years of owning a home, with a plot of land where he could grow corn and chiles as he did in…

07

• Iowa universities won't divulge credit card agreements. Two state universities are refusing to disclose to the Iowa Board of Regents their credit-card marketing agreements with Bank of America. The agreements are believed…

• Credit scores need be good, not perfect. Whether you're considering buying a new home or refinancing an existing mortgage, credit scores matter more than ever. To find out what consumers need to…

06

• Tax relief for distressed but not the rest. In a tax-Peter-to-pay-Paul move, the House voted Thursday to permanently remove the "phantom income" tax penalty that haunts financially distressed homeowners whose debt is partially…

05

• Credit card fine print can cost you. Every now and then, I read something that makes me gasp. It happened just recently, when I learned about a Public Citizen report on arbitration…