Recent Blog Posts
Second Chance Banking Can Help You Rebuild Your Finances
Your credit card has a low credit limit? Your auto loan has a high interest rate? Your credit score hasn’t budged even though you have been making payments on time, even though you have been making all the payments on your buy now pay later (BNPL) purchases for more than a year? Those all… Read More »
Deceptive Advertising Practices Are Rampant In Car Sales, And The FTC Wants Them To Stop
Medical bills are the biggest source of consumer debt, and payday loans are probably the most predatory, but car-related expenses are not especially benign. In most parts of Florida, it is virtually impossible to commute to and from work without a car. Buying a car often feels like a Faustian bargain for several reasons. … Read More »
What Could Possibly Go Wrong With Debt Settlement?
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could pay $500 to make an $800 debt go away? Sometimes you can. When creditors despair of collecting the full amount of a debt, they are sometimes willing to discount the amount that they originally asked for, based on the principle that getting some money is better than… Read More »
How To Finance A House So Small That It Doesn’t Qualify For A Mortgage
Home ownership remains the mark of financial stability, and for everyone except the wealthiest people, the only way to buy a house is by taking out a mortgage loan. Of course, mortgage loans come with their own mountain of stress. People spend years trying to get their finances in order so that they can… Read More »
Can Debt Settlement Companies Really Get You Out Of Debt?
If you had a dime for every time you saw an advertisement by someone promising to get you out of debt, you would have become debt-free a long time ago and stayed that way. It is easy enough to spot the ads that are outright scams, because they promise solutions that are too good… Read More »
3 Hard Truths About Credit Repair
Numbers are convenient for setting goals. Perhaps you want the scale to read a certain number by this time next year, you want to walk a certain number of steps each day, or you want to save a certain amount of money in an emergency fund. Those numbers don’t tell the whole story, though. … Read More »
Don’t Ignore Calls From Creditors, But Don’t Give Away Too Much Information
A common feature of lawyers, diplomats, and the most successful social hosts is that, when put on the spot, they can think of something to say that sounds appropriate but cannot be used against them later. They have spent years practicing this skill. You should also employ this tactic when dealing with debt collectors;… Read More »
Does Your Income Affect Your Credit Score?
Credit scores are stubborn and enigmatic things. As soon as you miss a payment on a credit card or buy now pay later (BNPL) installment plan, your credit score gets lower. Meanwhile, when you have been paying your rent, utilities, and BNPL payments on time, your credit score does not budge? This can only… Read More »
Filing For Bankruptcy Protection Can Solve Some Of Your Financial Problems, But Not All Of Them
Bankruptcy can make you debt-free virtually overnight, but it can also sharply decrease your credit score and require you to give up valuable assets. Does filing for bankruptcy make your financial situation better or worse, then? Everyone has the right to file for bankruptcy protection as long as a certain amount of time has… Read More »
Beware Of Fake Medical Bills
Healthcare in the United States is obscenely expensive, even for people with employer-provided health insurance and public marketplace insurance. Some people’s response to getting a medical bill in the mail is to put it in a drawer or the trash can, despairing of ever being able to pay it. Others call the number listed… Read More »