“Subprime” loans are made to borrowers whose credit scores are low, or whose income is not high enough for the amount being borrowed. The rates are higher than those given to “prime” borrowers. …

Several federal regulatory bodies that oversee banks and credit unions have proposed to make it harder for banks to make interest only and payment option loans (sometimes called “negative amortization” loans). (More details available …

Used to be that filing personal bankruptcy made it hard for you to borrow money for some time afterwards. Times have changed.

Used to be a real pain in the ass to arrange financing outside the dealership where you bought your new car, so most people tended to let the dealer take care of it. I …

So credit card companies are switching to variable rates, which allow them to raise the rate without notice. If they are lucky, maybe you won’t notice either!

Now Standard and Poor’s (S&P) is creating a way for you to gamble on house prices in general. It’s just like a casino.

Tax preparers have certainly been creative about ways to get at this money. You can go to some car dealers and have them do your taxes to make it easy to use the refund …

Of the roughly 30 top housing markets (those with median house prices of $300 or more) all but three are forecast to have a downturn in prices in 2006.

A fight has broken out over the Financial Data Protection Act, a bill currently being rewritten by the House of Representatives. (A similar bill, S1408, is working its way through the Senate.)

While the wording …

PRACTICE TIP: Whenever you hear that an account has been ’sent to collection,’ you should try to get the utility company to take the account back in house. It will then be MUCH …