News

2018

September

21

• 7 credit myths that can cost you a lot of money. If you’re low-income, having bad or no credit can make you even more financially unstable, according to new research by the Urban Institute.

• Flood damage in the Carolinas is widespread--Insurance coverage isn't. Flood damage from Hurricane Florence will be extensive, but in North Carolina many don't have flood insurance. North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey discusses the situation.

• Airlines are raising the cost of checked bags. Get ready to pay even more the next time you fly with checked baggage. Just before Labor Day, JetBlue and United Airlines raised the bag fee for most travelers to $30 from $25. Delta Air Lines followed

• MA revenue plan would tax state’s major colleges and universities. For weeks, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jay Gonzalez has faced criticism from Republicans for not detailing how he will pay for his expansive education and transportation plans. Now comes his proposal: Tax Harvard and the state

20

• Nearly half of cellphone calls will be scams by 2019. Nearly half of all cellphone calls next year will come from scammers, according to First Orion, a company that provides phone carriers and their customers caller ID and call blocking technology. The barrage of fraudulent

19

• Three generations share one problem: Student debt. It is the massive, and growing, financial burden weighing on three generations in the U.S.: student debt. Up to 40 percent of Americans have had to put off financial and personal goals in order to

• Consumers will feel pain from Trump's trade war. The Trump administration seems confident that consumers will not feel pain from its escalating trade war with China. But a pain-free trade war with China is nearly impossible. For American consumers, prices have already risen

18

• He meant to donate $15 to a GoFundMe and gave more than $15,000. Jim Houck felt compelled to help a woman he had never met. That’s how his problem started. The retired 72-year-old clicked on a GoFundMe page for a woman who lives more than 1,500 miles

• When being separated from your luggage is a good thing. The days of dragging suitcases to and through the airport may be numbered.

17

• Senators demand answers after student loan watchdog resigns. Seeking to "evaluate the independence and effectiveness" of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's student loan office, 15 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus sent a terse letter Thursday evening to Mick Mulvaney,

• Freezing credit will soon be free. Here's why you should.. Consumers will soon be able to freeze their credit files without charge. So if you have not yet frozen your files—a recommended step to foil identity theft — now is a good time

• CFPB pursues first lawsuit of Mulvaney era. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is accusing an Irvine company of targeting pensioners with high-cost deceptive loans. The case filed in federal court in Santa Ana might not in recent years have garnered much attention,

• The mortgage market is back, with new risks. As the overall mortgage market grows to a record size, the Federal Reserve is retreating from the sector it rescued, raising concerns about a potential uptick in volatility. And as the housing recovery and rising

• We're measuring the economy all wrong. The notion that our most prominent economic indicators are problematic has been around for a long time. Kuznets himself, the economist who invented G.D.P. as we know it, cautioned people not to confuse

14

• Americans are spending on big-ticket items. Americans spent a record $2 billion online over the Labor Day weekend, giving retailers reason to hope ahead of the closely watched holiday season.

• New iPhones are coming. Here’s how to save on an upgrade.. It’s the time of year when smartphone makers introduce their newest wares to tempt you to spend your hard-earned dollars on the latest, priciest devices.

13

• U.S. regulators reject Wells Fargo's plan to repay customers. U.S. regulators have rejected Wells Fargo & Co’s (WFC.N) plan to repay customers who were pushed into unnecessary auto insurance, telling the bank it must do more to ensure it has

• Google’s location privacy practices are under investigation. Google's alleged practice of recording location data about Android device owners even when they believe they have opted out of such tracking has sparked an investigation in Arizona, where the state's attorney general

• The Recovery threw the middle-class dream under a Benz. Like the diary stored in Ms. Swonk’s basement, the scars of the financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession are still with us, just below the surface. The most profound of these is

12

• Privatized air traffic control systems exhibit pain points (Evidence of good reasons not to privatize U.S. ATC system). Leading airline passenger advocates find that foreign air traffic control privatization schemes have made flying far more inconvenient for consumers, not necessarily safer. The groups oppose privatizing the U.S. air traffic control system.