In a typically close 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that national banks (those that choose to be regulated by various agencies of the federal government) cannot simply ignore state consumer laws …

The Wall Street Journal sees it as a “States Rights” case that will come before the Supreme Court on April 28, 2009.  But it has an unusual twist.  Normally states bring up the States Rights …

How many attempts have we had to provide a foreclosure prevention program that actually works?  Many of them have been described in previous BLOG entries on Foreclosure Prevention.   None of them …

When people get into trouble paying off their debts they often cannot get regular credit cards, which can be very inconvenient.  In response to this, some banks set up special credit cards for those who …

Everything has changed in the mortgage market.  Everything.  But it is not true that so-called sub-prime mortgages are no longer available in any form.

While you can no longer get a no-down-payment loan or a “no …

They will all deny it if asked, but my conversations with people who are trying to prevent foreclosure by negotiating new terms indicate that they are running into yet another obstacle: Lenders are stalling.  They …

The news keeps getting worse. The mortgage delinquency rate is up to 6.6% of all mortgages (as of the end of August). The delinquency rate is an astounding 25% for sub-prime mortgages. …

As credit card delinquencies rise (up to 4.5% in most recent quarter), credit card companies have become much more aggressive in their efforts to get delinquent card holders to pay up, according to the Wall …

It seems so easy. Need to get some money out of your house? Make repairs? Buy a new car? Leave your first mortgage in place and simply sign up for …

In many states, if your house is foreclosed or if you turn it into the lender and it is sold for less than the mortgage, you are still obligated to pay the balance of the …