Recent Blog Posts
Debt Consolidation Can Help Your Financial Situation, But Only If You Do Your Research
If you struggle with debt, as most of us do, you probably get lots of notices in the mail from banks offering you personal loans with which to consolidate your debt. On fact, they may even make it sound like consolidating your debt is a universal solution to everyone’s debt problems. If that were… Read More »
Going To The Emergency Room Just Got More Expensive For Insured Patients
When you are sick, should you go to the emergency room or wait until Monday morning, when doctors’ offices reopen? On the one hand, some common and non-specific symptoms can be signs of life-threatening conditions where prompt medical treatment is your only hope for survival. Is it just a stomach ache or appendicitis? A… Read More »
The Biggest Source Of Consumer Debt Is Not The Consumers’ Fault
It is tempting to blame people who are struggling with consumer debt to blame the problem on individual borrowers; perhaps it is human nature to be attracted to Schadenfreude. When someone tells you that their divorce ruined their finances, your inner grouch says, “That’s what you get for marrying a gold digger.” When someone… Read More »
Is Debt Buying The World’s Ickiest Profession?
It is normal to be indignant when a creditor calls you and pesters you about money that you owe them but have been unable to buy. There is a reason that movie audiences cheered during an early scene in the movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin where Catherine Keener’s character cusses out the caller who she… Read More »
What To Do Instead Of Paying A Collection Agency
Dealing with collection agencies is a truly unpleasant experience, but just how did your debt become the collection agency’s business in the first place? Most of the time, a creditor (such as a hospital credit card company, or any other entity from which you have consented to receive services in exchange for payment) sends… Read More »
Freeing Yourself From Parent PLUS Loans Is A Challenge, But It Can Be Done
Many parents dream of amassing a college fund for their children, one that will enable them to graduate from college debt-free, but this is much harder than it sounds. As wages stagnate while the price of tuition, dorms, and textbooks rises sky high, parents are less and less able to afford college, while employers… Read More »
Secured Credit Cards: The First Step To Getting Out Of Debt And Rebuilding Your Credit?
You have probably heard of the snowball method of debt repayment, where you put as much of your income as possible toward paying off your smallest debt, while making minimum payments on the others, and then when that one is paid off, you put as much money as you can toward the next smallest… Read More »
Yikes! Now Facebook Can Buy Your Debt Before It Is Even Past Due
Opinions differ about the exact date that the Internet stopped being fun, but most people would pinpoint it as the first time Facebook reminded them that they were broke. Since the early 2000s, Facebook has launched an increasing number of features designed to rub it in people’s faces that they have less money than… Read More »
The 609 Loophole: Myth Or Reality?
Schoolchildren in South Florida have been known to circulate a rumor to the effect that, if you say “Bloody Mary” to your reflection in the mirror three times in a dark room, a vengeful ghost by that name will appear and commit horrific acts. Anyone who has tried to do this found that the… Read More »
No More Surprise Medical Bills: The New Billing System Is Complicated, But As A Patient, It Isn’t Your Problem
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic started, the cost of healthcare in the United States was financially ruinous for most Americans. Having health insurance coverage could usually protect you from having to pay hundreds of dollars for a routine doctor’s office visit, but the burden was on patients to find doctors that accepted their insurance. … Read More »