Headline News Archive

2022

May

11

• Consumers lured Into predatory car repair loans. Auto repair shops affiliated with well-known brands—including AAMCO, Big O Tires, Grease Monkey, Jiffy Lube, Meineke, Midas, and Precision Tune Auto Care&mdash

05

• Bank of America to pay $10 million for illegal garnishments. The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it ordered Bank of America to pay a $10-million civil penalty for processing payments to creditors from

April

28

• Medicare Advantage plans often deny needed care. Every year, tens of thousands of people enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans are denied necessary care that should be covered under the program, federal

26

• Senators question Zelle over its response to reports of rising fraud. Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bob Menendez of New Jersey took aim at Zelle, the popular money transfer app, warning that it is putting

• How to opt out of Venmo’s new arbitration clause. If you use the Venmo app, you probably recently received an email explaining that the company is making changes to its user agreement — including

20

• More student loan borrowers will get help. The U.S. Department of Education says it will retroactively help millions of federal student loan borrowers who have been hurt and held back by

18

• Find out and fix what big data says about you. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau maintains a list of consumer reporting agencies that’s currently 38 pages long. In addition to the big three credit

• 8 questions about student loan default and "fresh start". The Department of Education (ED) announced a four-month extension of the current student loan payment pause—which also includes pauses on interest and collections

13

• The federal consumer bureau sued TransUnion over deceptive sales tactics. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued the credit-reporting firm TransUnion and a former senior executive — John Danaher, who led the company’s consumer

11

• The student loan pause won’t last forever. The extension for student loan repayment, interest and collections now runs until Aug. 31. But there was major news for people who were in default. The

03

• How the most affordable student loan program failed low-income borrowers. More than 9 million borrowers are currently enrolled in income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, which are designed to help people who cannot afford to make large monthly

March

31

• New government site to help Americans find Covid antiviral pills. During his State of the Union address, President Biden promised to establish a “test-to-treat” program “so people can get tested at a

29

• Your shadow credit score could decide if you get an apartment. The rapid rise of tenant screening is one of the seismic changes to hit the rental market since the Great Recession. Tenant screening companies compile

21

• Remote appraisals of homes could reduce racial bias. The majority of appraisals on home purchases in the United States can now be conducted without an appraiser ever stepping foot into the home —

• Credit reporting companies will remove stains from repaid medical debt. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion said that they will soon wipe away credit stains created by certain medical debts.  Starting on July 1, medical debts that

16

• Wells Fargo rejected half Its Black applicants for refinancing. Nationwide, only 47% of Black homeowners who completed a refinance application with Wells Fargo in 2020 were approved, compared with 72% of White homeowners, according to a Bloomberg

15

• How California is building the nation’s first privacy police. Ashkan Soltani faces the daunting task of overseeing the first government body in the United States with the sole job of regulating how Google, Facebook,

14

• Fraud Is flourishing on Zelle. Banks say it’s not their problem. Justin Faunce lost $500 to a scammer impersonating a Wells Fargo official and hoped that the bank would reimburse him.  But Wells Fargo said the

• An iPhone that costs half as much has plenty of appeal but.... After testing 2022’s iPhone SE for a few days, I’m happy to report: Apple’s least-expensive iPhone is mostly fine for

05

• Tuition-free college movement gains momentum. At least seven tuition-free initiatives have publicly launched since November, according to the College Promise campaign, which advocates making the first two or more years

01

• Rents reach ‘insane’ levels across US with no end in sight. In the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, median rent rose an astounding 19.3% from December 2020 to December 2021, according to a Realtor.com analysis of properties with

February

28

• Don’t get left behind when your airline travel credits expire. Millions of Americans who had flights canceled or postponed their trips due to the COVID-19 pandemic are still sitting on unused airline credits. Fortunately, in 2021,

17

• Beware the hidden risks In Buy Now, Pay Later plans. As online shopping has soared during the pandemic, the popularity of these new payment programs, known as buy now, pay later (BNPL) plans, has skyrocketed.

• The $1.7 billion student loan deal that was too good to be true. Even though prosecutors said Navient had made predatory loans to hundreds of thousands of borrowers it knew couldn’t afford them, the settlement covered

• DeVry, ITT Tech defrauded borrowers to receive loan cancellation. The Education Department said that it will cancel the federal student loans of nearly 16,000 people defrauded by DeVry University, ITT Technical Institute and Minnesota School