BanksterUSA.org has made the clever video below using everyone’s favorite holiday movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” to remind us of the woes facing many families this holiday season. In the midst of so much foreclosure, debt, and job loss, whose side are your representatives in Congress on? Mr. Potter’s side, or George Bailey’s? Give your
Unregulated derivatives trading were a major cause of the economic crisis and loss of homes, jobs and retirement savings. Inadequate regulation of derivatives was also a major contributor to last years energy price bubble. The volume of derivatives trading is enormous. According to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) survey, the outstanding amount of
The Center for Responsible Lending warned consumers this Black Friday to watch out for overdraft loans. Every day, consumers lose $65 in overdraft fees to banks. As CRL explains: At $24 billion per year in fees, unfair overdraft practices transfer funds from the accounts of hardworking Americans into the coffers of their banks and credit
Siegel+Gale put together this PDF which boils down a sample credit card’s terms to one page. While the language is simpler than your average 30-page contract, it’s still not ideal; note that the late fee is still $39, there’s Binding Mandatory Arbitration language, and the bank reserves the right to change the credit limit at
Have you ever waded through pages and pages of credit card contracts in an attempt to figure out what your interest rate will be? Have you overdrawn your account by a few cents, only to get slammed with a disproportionate fee? Would you be upset if you purchased holiday gifts only to find your credit
According to TIME Magazine, the CFPA is the 19th best invention of 2009. Although it’s not yet reality, and it was conceived well before 2009, at AFR we appreciate the point. Read more here – and cast your vote on TIME’s sliding scale about how important the CFPA is. (Photo: TIME)