News

2019

February

22

• Where the 2020 candidates stand on student debt. Free college and student-loan refinancing will be up for debate during this election cycle.

• The $15 minimum wage saves lives. A living wage is an antidepressant. It is a sleep aid. A diet. A stress reliever. It is a contraceptive, preventing teenage pregnancy. It prevents premature death. It shields children from neglect.

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• States, consumer groups blast CFPB’s fintech protections. State attorneys general, consumer advocates, community activists, and banking regulators are criticizing proposed legal protections for banks and technology firms that develop “innovative” financial products. The protections would come from the Consumer Financial

• Can Washington keep watch over Facebook and others?. Experts say the government has to seize on the opportunity to send a message — to Facebook and its peers — that it hears consumers’ frustrations and is willing to challenge the tech industry

• Consumers still prefer paper bills, but can they make you go digital?. Paper may be vilified in green offices, but it’s still king at home when it comes to how we receive our bills.  Despite the digital revolution, most Americans prefer to get their

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• Wall Street, with big tax breaks, sets sights on distressed main streets. More than 80 of the funds have sprung up since January 2018, even though the Trump administration has not finalized regulations governing them. Managers of the funds are seeking to raise huge sums of money by pitching

• Password managers have a security flaw. But still use one.. A new study has identified security flaws in five of the most popular password managers.  Now for some counterintuitive advice: I still think you should use a password manager. Password managers are programs that

• Is your phone always low on battery and chewing through data?. A sneaky piece of advertising software may be responsible for driving up millions of Android users’ mobile data usage and wasting their device’s battery life, according to researchers at the technology company

• ¿Necesitas reparar tu hogar? Sigue estos tips para encontrar a un buen contratista. Si has notado que tu casa necesita varios arreglos, quizás necesites a un contratista. Sin embargo, antes de llamar al primero que te digan, mejor tómate tu tiempo de analizar cu

• Nueve formas para que uses menos plásticos. ¿Te estás ahogando en plástico y no sabes cómo liberarte? Quienes ya han eliminado los plásticos de buena parte de su vida afirman que tú

• Qué son los vuelos “con ciudad oculta” y por qué las aerolíneas no quieren que los uses. El pasajero compra un ticket barato a una ciudad pequeña pero con escala y no aborda el último tramo del viaje Un truco para comprar billetes aéreos puede hacerte ahorrar

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• Betsy DeVos vs. student veterans. Despite robust objections from roughly three dozen national veterans and military service organizations, Secretary DeVos elected to eviscerate student protections and quality controls for colleges — particularly those governing the often low-quality, predatory for-profit colleges

• 6 small business tax deductions. Don't overlook these common small business tax breaks.

• The biggest economic divides are local. Superstar cities like Washington offer economic advantages in terms of careers. But research shows less populated areas can be better places for parents to help their children get ahead in life, when accounting for housing

• Dollar stores move into cities, residents see steep downside. These stores have gained attention as success stories in the country’s most economically distressed places — largely rural counties with few retail options.

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• Eche un vistazo a los números del puntaje de crédito. Querida Liz: Recientemente recibí un correo electrónico de la compañía emisora de mi tarjeta de crédito que decía que mi puntaje de crédito

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• Americans lost $143 Million in online relationship scams. The Federal Trade Commission is celebrating Valentine's Day by reminding people to not get scammed when looking for love.

• Many Americans feel cheated by student loans. A social and financial divide is forming — between those who have student debt, and those who do not — that will have ramifications for decades to come.

• Student loan servicers’ frequent mistakes went unpunished. An audit released by the Education Department on Thursday described its slipshod oversight of federal student loan servicers that were regularly let off the hook for mistakes, driving up costs for taxpayers and for borrowers

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• Some Equifax credit file locks have expired. Now what?. Those who took advantage of the Equifax offer may not realize that their free TrustedID Premier subscription ended on January 31. On that date, those Equifax credit reports were unlocked. Consumer advocates are urging people to