Category:
Monthly:
Post Title:
- NWA starts charging today for first checked bag
- Who’s Smiling Now? Enzyte Scammer Gets 25 Years In Prison
- Should Biden Share Blame for Foreclosure Crisis?
- Consumers: We’re Mad As Hell And We’re Not Going To Charge It Anymore!
- Biden, on the other hand, may be in MBNA’s pocket
- If Enough Banks Fail, The FDIC Could Run Out Of Money
- McCain will not enforce net neutrality
- Debt Reduction Snowball Calculator
- For debt collectors, business is booming
- Bad Credit? Why You Shouldn’t ‘Rent to Own’
- Dollar Duo: Textbook savings and more
- Got bills? Attack the stack
- More on the fake debt collection scam
- Why the OCC Can’t Be Relied on for Consumer Protection
- Fake Debt Collectors Terrify Consumers
- New video about the mortgage meltdown
- FTC Bans Prerecorded Telemarketing Drivel
- 8 Tips That Will Keep Your Refrigerator Healthy And Your Bills Low
- Nursing home evictions
- Return of the Living Debt: How Lenders Enable Predatory “Zombie Debt” Collectors
- Delta is Ready with New Fees for Frequent Fliers
- What to do when a debt collector calls
- Turnabout Is Fair Play
- Stop telemarketing calls (and sue if they keep calling)
- Stop debt collector calls with the TeleZapper
- Ohio Payday Lenders Caught Lying in Ballot Initiative Signature Drive
- Internet privacy gets Congress’ attention
- Credit madness
- Caveat Emptor playlist: how to buy a car without getting screwed
- In Pictures : Mortgage Guidelines Get Tough For All Borrower Types — Quickly
- 5 Best Coupon-Clipping Web Sites
- Celebrity Money Mistakes
- Medical debts are covered by the FDCPA, too
- Credit repair DIY: fix errors on your credit reports
- Debt buyers can’t prove s#!t
- Throwdown! Connecticut Sues Countrywide For Deceptive Lending
- Not Good: Fannie Mae Loses $2.3 Billion
- Oh Sh*t! 40% Of Indiana’s Mortgage Brokers Lose Their Licenses
- Payday lenders being replaced by credit unions
- The Top Personal Finance Blogs by Women
- Milwaukee man faces foreclosure because he didn’t pay parking fine
- Consumer Product Safety Bill Passes Congress
- Make Sure Your Free Credit Report Is Actually Free
- Former Countywide Employee Arrested For Stealing, Selling Customer Identities
- Credit card victory for consumer advocates
- Government To Airlines: Improve Customer Service Or Else
- Racial bias in mortgage lending
- Judge Rules That Early Termination Fees Are ILLEGAL In California
- Sam on credit counseling agencies in Bench & Bar
- Man Sets Himself On Fire At Rent-A-Center After Receiving Too Many Late Payment Notices
- T-Mobile Introduces Month To Month Contracts
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Georgia Sends 202,000 Letters Containing Personal Information To The Wrong Addresses
- Everything’s bigger in… Alaska?
- Bush signs housing rescue law
- $8,000 debt turns credit card couple onto debit
- Debt settlement companies and credit counselors–are they worth the fee?
- Delta Makes Woman With Muscular Dystrophy Crawl Off Plane
- Most People Can Still File Chapter 7 bankruptcies
- Fixing our fuel crisis, credit crunch: a new course in home economics?
- Are airline kiosks safe?
- Larry Lessig Netroots Nation Keynote: the Bankrupt Congress
- Grocery Shopping: The Importance of Checking the Price Per Unit
- Two banks fail, 90 on FDIC problem list
- Bank Of America Lets Identity Thief Withdraw $40,000 In A Single Day
- FCC Votes To Punish Comcast
- Suspect in Spider-Man clothing sought in Golden Valley motel robbery
- U.S. Foreclosures Double: 1 in Every 171 Households Affected
- Insurance company rules
- Olympus phone recording device makes it easy to record phone calls
- Facing foreclosure, Taunton woman commits suicide
- Most Bank Websites Are Insecure
- Stretch Your Food Dollar: Rethinking Meat
- Monster Cable still a bunch of jerks
- Warning: Seven signs of too much debt
- 10 Things You Might Not Know About Your Credit Card
- Beware Long-Term Cardholders With Perfect Payment Histories, Your Credit Lines May Be Slashed
- Credit card tricks and traps to avoid
- Bush Administration Considering A Takeover Of Freddie And Fanny
- 6 things you should never say to a car salesman
- Bad dog! Pooch racks up $142 on a Verizon account
- Common credit card tricks & traps
- Obama Losing Voters Over FISA Support
- California Foreclosure Law Passed
- Are you more likely to discuss your sex life than your credit card debt?
- Fed to Issue New Mortgage Lending Regulations Next Week
- Obama would ease bankruptcy for military, seniors, disaster victims; says McCain backs bankers
- Your landlord could be worse
- Can Prayer Lower Gas Prices? These People Think So
- Report: cable more expensive in wake of FCC franchise reform
- Managing Debt in Times of Unemployment
- Financial advisor scams $400k from elderly couple
- ‘Zero’ chance lottery tickets stun some players
- Debt collectors on the rampage
- Gas prices scale record $4.10 a gallon
- National speed limit pushed as gas saver
- Caveat Emptor playlist: Pete Barry on Fox Morning Show
- Host a Maxed Out House Party
- Dragged Down by Debt
- Special interests vs. you
- As Foreclosures Escalate
- Wal-Mart broke Minnesota labor law, judge rules
- Consumer debt an issue for some of state’s congressional delegation, too
- When good wood goes bad
- Angry Consumers Flood Federal Reserve Board with Complaints
- The ‘other’ digital TV conversion might cost you
- Ex Countrywide Manager Exposes Its Lies
- Is it worth trading in your gas guzzler?
- Montgomery Ward’s Hacked 6 Months Ago, But Victims Weren’t Told
- Sign up for your TransUnion class action settlement benefits
- Staycation: staying home is the new vacation
- Free monthly credit score estimates
- Sunday link roundup
- Five cool cell phone tricks
- The Interest Rate Outlook Continues to Improve
- Citibank considers imitating Gilda Radner
- Top 10 Ways to Trick Yourself into Saving Money
- Hundreds of brokers netted in FBI sweep
- Former Bear hedge fund managers surrender
- Can governments copyright laws? Should they?
- Government Foreclosure Rescue Plans are in the Works
- Minnesota is a friendly state—especially if you are a debt collector
- Anatomy of a Meltdown: The Credit Crisis
- Settlement results in free credit monitoring service
- Latest Gallup Poll Shows 43% of Americans Pays Credit in Full
- Quick thoughts - superstars Barack Obama and Elizabeth Warren collide, plus new Democratic hypocrisy
- United Airlines To Charge $15 For First Checked Bag
- Think Twice Before Paying for Credit Protection
- Tips for Dealing with a Stolen Credit or Bank Card
- Could you live with just 100 things?
- More on how arbitration screws consumers from Elizabeth Warren
- Identity protection ads come back to bite LifeLock CEO
- In trouble with an internet payday loan? Change banks.
- Chicago courts clogged with collection claims
- Insurance Insider Tells How To Appeal Coverage Denial
- Update: save your money; Citibank will not reopen your HELOC even if you spend $600 on an appraisal
- Surprise: debt causes a lot of stress, which can take a physical toll
- Banks vs. Consumers (Guess Who Wins)
- Hate your credit card? Tell the Fed
- Free credit scores for all consumers? Almost…
- Minnesota has less than half as many mortgage originators this year. Good.
- Defendants in Debt Collection Scheme Aimed At Hispanics Agree to Settle FTC Charges
- Home foreclosures, late payments set records in first quarter of 2008
- Arbitration news roundup
- What in the world is a credit recession?
- Countrywide Is About To Foreclose On Ed McMahon
- Car buying 101 on YouTube
- Vintage debt collection postcards
- Pete Barry makes dirty debt collectors pay
- Payday lending interest rates forced down in Ohio
- Homecomings Financial loses (part of) its motion to dismiss consumer fraud claims
- Consumers being squeezed from two sides
- Governor Tim Pawlenty loves the homeless so much he wants more of them
- ABC News: National Arbitration Forum is selling justice
- Consumers in California lose 99% of the time
- National Arbitration Forum thinks courts should just rubber stamp arbitration awards
- National Association of Realtors finally caves on internet listing
- Different crowd, same message
- Big surprise: greedy subprime security buyers didn’t listen to their own consultants
- A Monster List of Things Monster Cable Will Soon Sue
- Monster Cable is apparently run by douchebags
- Judge: “Dell Has Engaged In Repeated Misleading, Deceptive And Unlawful Business Conduct”
- Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prevents insurers from using your genes to jack up your premium
- Mandatory binding arbitration sucks (say 81% of Americans)
- Foreclosure scammers busted in San Diego
- Apartment foreclosures multiply homeless and problems
- Keith Ellison co-sponsors the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008
- Maxed Out hits Showtime
- K2 Auto Group: not very nice car salesmen at all
- Minnesota legislature passes Subprime Borrower Relief Act
- Countersuits are acceptable losses for debt collectors
- Mortgage servicers make their money by screwing consumers and lenders
- Two consumer law CLE seminars coming up
- Student loan “crisis” just an invention?
- Monday consumer blog roundup
- Mad Cow: A test the Bush Administration doesn’t like
- Pete Barry on abusive debt collectors
- Court fined two individuals and one corporation $530,000
- Debt collectors figure out how to close the circle
- Credit card arbitration: banks are conspiring against you
- Is the consumer movement a “horseless headman?”
- Perpetual arbitration with National Arbitration Forum
- The Supreme Court: reality v. fiction
- Capital One charges 70% interest?
- AFFIL’s Jim Campen and Sarah Byrnes join Caveat Emptor
- Moody’s triple-A security ratings led to the subprime meltdown
- How much did deregulation contribute to the recession (economic slowdown, whatever)
- How the candidates would address the foreclosure crisis
- Travel light: fees for extra luggage multiply like crazy
- Why few seem to be able to work out better loan terms
- AT&T and others make you pay for the privilege of paying your bill
- TigerDirect bought CompUSA
- After a multimillion-dollar verdict, attorneys get fee award, too
- LendingTree lawyers threaten blogger with defamation
- More on the HELOC freeze from SmartMoney.com
- There is no state bankruptcy law
- Growth in payday lending
- Inexpensive tool for detecting auto fraud
- Tax refund is (usually) happy season for debt collectors
- Wait, now mortgage lenders are stealing identities?
- The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 by a Republican Congress was a gift to Wall Street
- 700,000 Central Collection Bureau, Inc., accounts vulnerable to identity theft
- A consumer’s guide to the internet
- Congress finally allowed consumers to speak out on credit card industry abuses
- Do not give away your identity for a candy bar
- Monster Cable sues another little guy—but this one will not be pushed around
- Consumerism 2.0 conference a scam?
- Landlord resources
- Foreclosure prevention: rescission
- Securitization (or, why you can’t work out a lower mortgage payment)
- The impact of the subprime mortgage squeeze across the U.S.
- Update: U.S. Senator Norm Coleman on the Financial Crimes Task Force
- Update: Minnesota Senator Linda Berglin on the Financial Crimes Task Force
- Citibank’s HELOC freeze is causing more than just a few bounced checks
- A look inside the credit score cocktail
- Citibank freezes home equity lines of credit nationwide
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce fudges the issue on arbitration
- New consumer blog: We Are the 90 Percent
- April foo– darn, missed it
- Bank of America to pay two Countrywide execs $19 million for running company, economy into the ground
- What would you do if you lost your job?
- Minnesota gives mortgage fraudsters a free pass
- Like the blog, but keep forgetting to come back?
- Airplane passengers not entitled to food, water, clean toilets, and fresh air
- The remaining presidential candidates on consumer issues
- Surprise Surprise . . . mortgage rescue scams on the rise!!!
- Representing yourself in court: staying on point
- Debt collection complaints going up; what to do if you get a call
- The U.S. Supreme Court likes business
- Congress doesn’t care about consumers
- Credit card rates are at a two-year low
- Caveat Emptor Playlist: the sub-prime market explained
- Cost of hiring an attorney: consumer lawyers vs. regular lawyers
- A dialogue with our readers
- How to hold onto your security deposit
- What you need to know about bogus charges on your phone bill.
- YouWalkAway.com was one of those “right place, right time” startups
- Attention: do not take out a 9-year auto loan (for crying out loud)!
- Minnesota finally sues for breathalyzer source code
- Minnesota lawmakers consider three foreclosure bills
- More on walking away from your mortgage
- Your attorney general and Better Business Bureau
- Check your property for liens every once in a while
- Consumers protect yourselves
- Consumer issues are not partisan
- Sure you owe somebody for your mortgage loan, but who?
- Scammer BlueHippo coughed up $5 million to settle its dispute with the FTC over its uber-expensive, bargain-bin computer “deals.”
- Call an attorney already
- Debt collectors filed more than 36,000 lawsuits in Minnesota in 2007
- The economy is tanking
- Attention Big Business: listen to our complaints and give us what we want
- Consumer activism on the rise
- Ralph Nader is running for president
- Payday lending: what would would Jesus charge?
- Store charge cards will drag down your credit score
- Beef recall, lack of inspectors leads to cutting corners
- The housing market mess; connecting some dots
- Minnlawpedia, a user-generated repository of Minnesota law and procedure for the non-lawyer
- President W signed the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007
- Predatory lending made worse by Bush Administration
- Barack Obama on the subprime mortgage crisis
- Quit Claim: scams in prime time.
- Roundup
- Preying on the elderly, payday lenders’ newest victims
- CenterPoint Energy drops its credit reporting plan
- We just completed our redesign
- Payday loans the not so cheap alternative
- Mortgage securitizers fiddle as Rome burns
- Alternatives to payday loans: small dollar loans
- Caveat Emptor playlist: BoA execs singing bastardized version of U2’s “One”
- New form: request for validation letter
- Payday loans: countering the spin
- How the candidates stand on the subprime meltdown
- Payday loans only delay trouble
- Debt collectors and wrong numbers: how to handle a case of mistaken identity
- Caveat Emptor playlist: the mortgage foreclosure mess explained
- Arbitration clauses: no car without one.
- F.B.I. opens subprime inquiry
- Follow up on the “SHIT FACE” letter
- Stanley Steemer’s 10% discount is no discount at all
- Attention homeowners: your lender can help you avoid foreclosure
- Spiros Zorbalas is a helluva slum lord
- RIAA wants $1.5 million per song
- Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections
- Comcast now allows customers to opt out of mandatory binding arbitration
- New financial plan: walk away from your mortgage
- I hate candidate (and fundraiser) phone calls
- Bush may “fix” the Chinese toy problem by hiring Gail Charnley, who will probably just reassure us that the problem does not exist
- The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard
- 36% interest rate cap
- Build an economy, not buy one
- New Minnesota consumer website: Consumer Rights Watch
- Served by a debt collector? What to do next
- Helping the unbanked
- What the Fed rate cut means
- Refund anticipation loans are a bad deal
- Why brick-and-mortar stores are dying
- Debt collectors in the US may not be so bad, after all
- Finding lawyers outside Minnesota
- Presidential candidates on toy safety
- We take you to a meeting of the RIAA
- Mortgage denials for Native Americans
- Credit card payoff through debt management/credit counseling programs: be careful!
- Presidential candidates’ votes on 2007 consumer legislation (CL&P Blog crosspost)
- Already at ludicrous speed, the RIAA goes a bit faster
- RIAA has achieved ludicrous speed
- “Renting and the Law” column in the Star Tribune
- Credit card delinquencies on the rise (duh)
- How are you holding up, sir? I feel just fine.
- Subprime borrowers shouldn’t get all the blame
- The proposed Regulation Z changes on mortgage lending
- Payday loan to pay your mortgage?
- High cost of eating healthy
- Waste
- Yeah! Where was Washington?
- Payday holiday: do we need a vacation from payday lending?
- Caveat Emptor playlist: phone calls with American Credit Collections
- Complaining to the Federal Trade Commission
- 3,400 occupied homes in Minnesota have no heat this winter
- Closing documents may be requested prior to closing
- Debt buyers upset that they might actually have to tell consumers their debt has been sold
- Barack Obama calls for safeguards against predatory credit cards
- The 10 worst consumer technology trends
- The new Canadian national anthem
- Poverty in the suburbs
- Guess who isn’t losing money in the subprime mess
- Subprime rescue plan: few get “rescued”
- AFFIL’s holiday season credit tips
- Sentry Credit will send soldiers to make you pay your debt
- Will Wall Street come clean?
- Subprime rescue plan, who gets rescued?
- Debt collection lawsuits in Minnesota and a new VLN clinic to help address the problem
- Prosper.com, a Web 2.0 “social lending” site and alternative to payday loans and usurious credit cards
- Talk your way out of a ticket
- Mortgage fraud, another Enron?
- Profits of a payday lender
- CARFAX, a history with holes big enough to drive a salvaged Mac truck through
- Nick Slade joins the Caveat Emptor blog
- Unifund averages nearly 5,500 collection lawsuits a year in California alone
- HSBC will not give you their credit card agreement until after you apply for the card
- Uptown Pizza refuses to honor its good coupons
- Debt collector Merchants Retail Credit Association to pay $854,389.81 for FDCPA violations
- Debt collector Marshall and Ziolkowski to pay $92,903 for debt collection violations
- Debt collectors get screwed, too
- Subprime loan delinquency curve nearly vertical
- DIY law: respond to your debt buyer lawsuit with forms
- Buy nothing on November 23rd
- Nationwide Collections admits violating the FDCPA
- Arbitration fairness: “Party at Ralph’s” vs. “Party at Joan’s”
- Overbooking endangered by the Bush Administration(!)
- “Sell plasma” advises Credit Solutions of America
- Nationwide Collections addresses letter to “SHIT FACE”
- Off to D.C. for the NCLC 2007 Conference
- MPR: “Equity-stripping scams could rise as foreclosures increase”
- Money is debt, debt is imaginary money
- Christmas cancelled: China revokes over 750 export licenses
- Debt collectors won’t necessarily leave you alone just because your income is exempt from garnishment
- NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)
- CenterPoint Energy will begin reporting delinquent utility customers in January
- Arbitration hearings roundup
- Debt collector tells debt buyers not to sue
- One-click credit cards now available from Wells Fargo (apparently)
- Forms: answer & discovery requests in a debt buyer lawsuit
- Definitions: “debt buyer” and “debt buyer lawsuit”
- Costs of litigation in Minnesota
- Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act of 2007 getting attention
- Mandatory vs. elective arbitration
- Thomas files motion to set aside verdict
- National Arbitration Forums rubber-stamps a(nother) bogus claim
- The Arbitration Fairness Act
- T-Mobile early-termination fee lawsuit moves forward because mandatory binding arbitration clause unconscionable
- Watch FTC hearings on debt collection
- 325 foreclosed homes up for sale at mass auction
- Watching NBC shows online is awesome, but the ads are terrible
- Joseph Nardulli and National Arbitration Forum make MBNA and Wolpoff & Abramson a lot of money
- NIN joins Radiohead in a future without record labels
- Thoughts on the verdict in Virgin v. Thomas
- RIAA is losing millions by suing its fans. Who coulda guessed?
- Comparing arbitrators’ claims with empirical data
- Tips for debt collectors: “The importance and availability of media in a portfolio”
- Tips for debt collectors: “Developing a Good Collection Formula”
- RIAA lawsuits backfiring, on the wane?
- Software Freedom Law Center files first GPL lawsuit in the U.S.
- Messerli & Kramer loses big for adding attorney fees onto amount of debt
- Ameriquest is dead and gone
- Regarding debt collection and the advice “just pay it”
- Links for consumers facing foreclosure
- Librarians and debt collectors: together at last?
- Caveat Emptor playlist on YouTube
- Minnesota’s junior senator comes through: Amy Klobuchar sponsors the Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act of 2007
- Answering is not enough
- Nonprofit payday lenders still have usurious rates
- Inside the Countrywide lending spree
- Dealing with debt collectors
- Before you “lawyer up,” try to negotiate a resolution
- Ameriquest will loan you money if you eat brownies, but not if you eat dog poop
- Monk-e-mail from a stockbroker(?)
- The “Speed Equity System” is not all it seems
- So just how impartial is National Arbitration Forum?
- Home inspection nightmares (or, why you should inspect before buying)
- New Minnesota laws for 2007
- Minnesota makes merchants more accountable for identity theft
- NYT Op-Ed urges regulation for the credit card industry
- Minnesota’s revised predatory lending law
- Maybe the Internet really is a dark alleyway
- Finished reading Harry Potter
- Where to find help and an attorney
- The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: when it applies
- What to do instead of waiting for a notice of foreclosure
- Debt collectors cannot use Rule 68 to “buy off” named class representatives
- Should you buy a house (or sell the one you have)?
- Can eating at McDonald’s save the planet?
- Juries bad at judging guilt and innocence?
- Account stated
- Don’t automatically sign optional arbitration agreements: stop, think, and
- The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter
- Debt firms “slammed” by consumer lawsuits (according to Law.com)
- Payday loans from an ATM?
- Hennepin County foreclosures Google Maps mashup
- Credit card terms may be getting (a bit) better
- “Good Copy Bad Copy”
- Don’t finance your car with your home equity loan
- New lawyer-rating site Avvo already under fire
- Nation’s appellate courts to plaintiffs: you lose
- Current balance vs. payoff amount
- “Appearance courts” and “regular courts”
- Paul Bland on mandatory binding arbitration
- More on that crazy judge with the $54 million pants
- How to avoid losing your security deposit
- Four Home Depot employees fired for preventing loss, violating loss prevention policy
- What kind of consumer are you, anyway?
- Identity theft: you really can’t do much about it (but here’s what you can do)
- Husband of woman driven to suicide by Discover’s threats allowed to sue for intentional infliction of emotional distress
- Cell phones: prepaid or calling plan?
- Credit card industry hearings in the House Of Representatives yesterday
- The Sixth Circuit allows TN husband to sue Discover for harassment leading to his wife’s suicide
- The Fair Credit Reporting Act at the Supreme Court
- Don’t burn your mortgage!
- The statute of limitations on debt collection
- Hon. Jim Rosenbaum’s amusing stock-backdating opinion
- Shady practices in the garnishment business
- Guidelines for identity theft victims
- PSA to the MPAA and RIAA
- Trip report: Geneva airport
- Trip report: Iceland Air
- Trip report
- No “litigation immunity” for dishonest debt collectors
- Identity theft after death
- Bank of America makes identity theft even worse than it already is
- “Pocket service” and pre-judgment garnishment
- Auto loan industry anything but color blind
- The debt collector v. the widow
- No job? No worries: Employment Verification Services will help you defraud a lender!
- Is Michael Baroody the wrong candidate to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission?
- Today is Law Day (oh, and May Day, too)
- Welcome, Minnesota Lawyer readers
- Wal-Mart suppresses union organizing
- Credit card cos. encouraging bankrupts to be ashamed of themselves?
- For my alma mater
- Being proactive with your debt
- Debt stories on I Will Teach You to be Rich
- Featured on CTX Home & Wealth Show today
- Arbitration clauses and identity thiefs
- Estimate your creditworthiness
- The U.S. Supreme Court gives the OCC the power to do nothing whatsoever to regulate and oversee national bank subsidiaries
- Mary Pawlenty leaves National Arbitration Forums after one month on the job
- Goodbye, Kurt Vonnegut
- Minnesota Senate pushing for personal finance training for college freshman
- Broadband customers get smacked with early termination fees, too
- Roll like a CEO; skip the customer service queue and go right to the top
- Mpls. photo cop: that’s the end of that (for now)
- FCC worries cell phones in the air may interfere with cell phones on the ground
- Subprime lenders in bankruptcy should be ashamed of themselves
- Bankrupts no longer ashamed of themselves
- “[T]here are two types of people: those who have had their data stolen and those that will.”
- Valley Park, MO, attempts to shut out Hispanics under the guise of combating illegal immigration
- Caveat Emptor’s first tradmedia shout out
- “The day of reckoning is near”
- What should be done about payday lending?
- Many subprime borrowers qualified for better loans
- Opened up a can of worms over at the Consumerist
- How to negotiate
- Senior Democrats propose new predatory lending legislation
- Blogging at the Consumerist March 20-23, 26
- Don’t copy your tax return at just any copier
- The end of “check float”
- Hispanic borrowers may be hardest-hit by the subprime lending crisis
- D.C. residents: freeze your credit
- Nightline on “Maxed Out”
- Messerli & Kramer and attorney fees for collecting debts
- Watch the “photo cop” argument at the Minnesota Supreme Court
- Focus on Foreclosure claims a “WIN-WIN Solution”
- Payday lenders: blah blah platitudes blah blah
- Minnesota Commerce Dept. cracks down on title company steering
- Texas all but outlaws class actions
- RIAA continues to extort money from filesharers, fails to promote a viable alternative
- Norm Coleman on net neutrality
- What is net neutrality?
- Wiccans gather to fight for soldiers’ right to display pentacle on headstones
- Boycott the RIAA in March
- Maxed Out movie
- When to consider credit counseling
- Guest blogging at The Consumerist today
- SCOTUS says punitive damages are not for punishing companies
- Washington County Commissioner Bill Pulkrabek: the homeless are jackasses
- 2008 Minnesota candidates and their stance on consumer issues
- Experian makes collectors’ jobs easier
- NJ Supreme Court holds that the FDCPA encompasses frequent evicters
- Tip for Minnesotans: single-metered residential buildings (shared utility meters)
- Foreclosures “catching lenders by surprise”
- DRM, iPods, and consumers
- Appraisers pressured to inflate home values as the real estate market “softens”
- National Consumer Protection Week
- Sober houses ensconced in a grey area
- “You mean I can tell my landlord to call my lawyer? Cool.”
- Senate credit industry hearings update
- While I was out . . .
- Another rebuttal to “Defining and Detecting Predatory Lending”
- Form letters for tenants
- More on the myth of the rational borrower
- “godless blood sucking arbitration”
- Senate credit card industry hearings available live online
- Litigation roundup: Trial Lawyers for Public Justice
- The anti-EULA
- The Myth of the Rational Borrower, part two
- St. Paul gets the ACLU’s dander up over new home inspection policy
- Chase gets the jump on the Senate, ends double-cycle billing
- Minnesota realtor stole the identities of five people to get ~$3 million worth of property
- Do payday lenders target certain demographics?
- The end of we
- Required reading for the Fed
- The problems with inclusionary housing
- Is the payday lending industry welfare enhancing, or is it predatory?
- Fairway Trails Apartments to pay $50,000 to settle fair housing case
- A word on commenting
- Minnesota Attorney General proposes criminal penalties for consumer predators
- ABC News investigates debt collection
- NY Federal Reserve Bank staff decide payday loans are NOT predatory
- Judge v. Judge
- Foreclosures: not just a devastating loss anymore!
- Mortgage-Trapped
- Minnesota Association of Realtors is #4 in lobbying dollars in Minnesota
- BlueHippo is a cute, cuddly ripoff
- Screech gets a foreclosure notice
- AAA: pointless at best, harmful at worst
- Apparently, gift cards are a big scam
- National taxpayer advocate pushes to end use of private debt collectors
- Resolution #4: cut expenses
- Washington state payday lenders fined $1.2 million, face license revocation
- Resolution #3: don’t overstate your income on a loan application
- MN First Lady Mary Pawlenty will join Nat’l Arbitration Forums as general counsel
- Resolution #2: get it in writing (or on tape)
- “I do not believe in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.”
- New guidelines for nontraditional mortgage loans in Minnesota
- Commenting
- Resolution #1: get an attorney for any real estate transaction
- Blog roundup
- Chart of foreclosures in Hennepin County, Minnesota (1988-2006)
- MPR on the foreclosure epidemic
- (Some) fat cut from the Legal Services Corporation
- TheMobileSolution on MySpace
- Red light cameras headed to the Minnesota Supreme Court
- So you’ve been sued, and you answered. What next?
- Give a cow for [your holiday of choice here]
- Bob Lawless is a downer (if you are the credit industry)
- The most aggravating CSR phone call I have ever heard.
- Using unlocked phones
- Incoming Minnesota attorney general Lori Swanson starts talking
- Chase cracks down on delinquent cardholders
- The foreclosure epidemic reaches the middle class in Minnesota
- Payday loans cost consumers $4.2 billion annually
- UMN law professors unhappy about Delahunty
- Aluminum foil wallet–with style
- Frontline: the Secret History of the Credit Card
- Zombie 7 sue Minneapolis
- Worst landlord in Minnesota?
- The Last Great American Holiday
- Payday loans are the devil
- Might as well screw the soldiers, too
- Paramount/MPAA are really out of touch
- Briefs filed in FCRA case
- Incredible UCLA library event caught on video
- Detroit leads a 43% increase in foreclosures nationally
- Things to keep in mind when settling a debt
- Short-lived ads
- Early termination fees endangered!
- Bank of America calls the cops on a customer; the Internet strikes back
- BusinessWeek on Capital One’s Credit Trap
- “Let’s Lynch the Landlord” (figuratively speaking, of course)
- HUD goes after housing insurance companies for discrimination
- TheMobileSolution sells consumers on shifty cell-phone plans
- New “FICO Expansion” credit score
- In the event of a lawsuit, please head for the nearest lawyer
- Auto insurance consumers are shopping around
- Beginning of a disturbing trend?
- The benefits (?) of tort reform
- Fraud Update boggles the mind
- Tort reform in, doctors out
- New twist on the old scam
- Credit card payments rising, but consumers clueless as to how those payments are calculated, anyway
- West Va. Attorney General reaches settlement with Minnesota debt buyer
- Amendments to the FDCPA
- US PIRG files complaint with the FTC regarding online privacy
- Punitive damages on review at USSC
- This site now copyleft
- ConsumerAffairs.com: “Hotel Key Cards: Identity Theft Risk or Not?”
- the HLO: “Hatin’ on arbitration”
- Pioneer Press: “For drinkers who think (ahead)”
- Freakonomics blog: “This Is the Sound of Chinks Appearing in Armor”
- BoingBoing: ” China unblocks Wikipedia, even though it won’t censor”
- Winona Daily News: “An $830,500 difference: City ordered to pay $903,000 for land it originally thought worth $72,500″
- YouTube: “Cleaning Up Maryland’s Eviction Mess”
- cdtv.net: “New Web Tool Helps Consumers Uncover Generic Drug Alternatives”
- YouTube: “Dan The Mortgage Man - Credit Scores 101″
- LA Times; “U.S. Rules Allow the Sale of Products Others Ban”
- Project Posner
- Consumerist: “Compare Rents in Your Area With Rentometer”
- Consumerist: “Payday Loanshark’s Waters Drain”
- “Contact us for pricing”
- Documenting damage
- Get a shredder
- Consumerist: “Car Dealership Bilks Old Man and Steals $2000 With His ATM Card”
- WCCO: “Appeals Court Keeps ‘Photo Cops’ Turned Off”
- Legal Affairs: “Old Yeller: The illustrious history of the legal pad”
- Diebold again: “‘Hotel Minibar’ Keys Open Diebold Voting Machines”
- CITP: “Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine”
- Strib Editorial: “2 standards for diversity in the legal fraternity”
- The Observer: “Wikipedia defies China’s censors”
- Project Censored: “Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007″
- BoingBoing: ” I am not Saddam’s son, says man with defamed credit report”
- Boing Boing: “How to find confidential reports with Google”
- City Pages: “If You Lived Here, You’d be Broke by Now”
- CNN: ” NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional”
- Experimenting with carlessness
- KSTP: Foreclosures in North Minneapolis
- The Boston Globe: “Debtors’ Hell”
- Consumerist: “The Softer Side of Sears’ Ruthless Debt Collection
- RSS feed now available!
- Zombies with “simulated WMDs” attack Minneapolis!
- Consumerist: “Drove My Chevy to the Levy But The Dealer Left Me Dry”
- Anoka Co. Attorney: Consent v. Refusal
- New forum: SoloSmall Tech
- KSTP: “Minnesota soldier fighting legal battle”
- Star Tribue: “In or out? Smoking ban is hazy”
- EFF: Class-action lawsuit against AT&T
- Treehugger: Using the “pulse of the city” to generate power