Credit is a serious issue for everyone because it affects nearly every part of our lives. Your credit score affects credit card and loan approvals, car and home insurance, interest rates, the amount of rental and utility deposits, and it could even affect your job hunt. Unless you have loads of cash, you need a […]

When a debt collector calls, don’t let them push you around. A third of consumers have been contacted by a creditor or debt collector in the past 12 months, according to a survey released Thursday from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Of those consumers who had contact with a debt collector, 27 percent reported feeling […]

The nation’s largest student loan servicer was hit with a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lawsuit Wednesday over allegations that it has “systematically and illegally” failed borrowers. Navient, formerly part of Sallie Mae, created repayment obstacles for tens of thousands of student borrowers by providing incorrect payment information, processing payments incorrectly and failing to act when borrowers complained, according to the federal […]

statute of limitation is the amount of time a person can take legal action on a certain event. When it comes to debt, the statute of limitation is the amount of time a creditor can ask the court to force you to pay for a debt. The court system doesn’t keep track of the statute […]

Paying for your credit score may not be worth it, especially since you often can get it for free. The question about whether you should pay rose again Tuesday after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined two big U.S. credit-reporting agencies, Equifax and TransUnion, in part for allegedly misleading consumers into buying credit scores of dubious […]

n a recent column about simplifying your financial life, I recommended consolidating accounts and getting rid of ones that you don’t use, especially when they have high fees. A couple of readers wrote to me with credit score questions: “If you cancel a credit card doesn’t it affect your credit score?” wondered the first. “I […]

Mr. Urbanski has filed a complaint in the US District Court for Middle District of Florida alleging that Enhanced Recovery has called him approximately 150 times on his cellphone. If Enhanced Recovery did not have Urbanski’ s permission to call him on his cellphone or even if it did and Urbanski revoked that permission, then […]

All Mortgages Are Not Created Equal FICO credit scores range between 300 and 850. For everyone on the lower end of that spectrum, there’s still home-buying hope. According to mortgage software firm Ellie Mae, the average FICO score for approved FHA mortgage applications was 689, and much higher — at 755 — for conventional applications. Government […]

If you’ve ever tried to check your credit and come away discouraged because you didn’t have a credit report or it didn’t have enough data to generate a credit score, you might be looking for a shortcut to building credit. Becoming an authorized user on someone else’s credit card — often called piggybacking because you’re riding on the […]