Texas mortgage holders who had loans with Countrywide and lost their homes to foreclosure could benefit from a $7.46 million restitution program recently announced by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, reports The Houston Business Journal (“Countrywide to Make $7.5M Available for Texas Foreclosures,” Feb. 11, 2009). (more…)

Popularity: 4% [?]

Executives from the nation’s top banks told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that the government’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program – which was intended to use tax-payer dollars to help rescue distressed financial institutions – is working, despite criticism that it has done little to encourage banks to lend (“Bank CEOS Tell US House Panel They’re Lending,” Dow Jones Newswires, Feb. 11, 2009). (more…)

Popularity: 6% [?]

Florida state officials received welcome news last week when Gov. Charlie Crist announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had approved the release of $91 million in federal aid for Florida’s cities and counties hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis, reports the Orlando Business Journal (“HUD Releases $91 M in Foreclosure Aid,” Feb. 5, 2009). (more…)

Popularity: 3% [?]

Hundreds of thousands of JPMorgan Chase customers with low, fixed-rate credit cards are being charged a new $10 monthly fee and are seeing their minimum payments more than double from 2 percent to 5 percent of their existing card debt, reports USA Today (“Chase Adds Fee for Low-Rate Credit Cards,” Feb. 9, 2009). (more…)

Popularity: 6% [?]

Americans may want to mark Feb. 14 on their calendars for a reason besides Valentine’s Day; it’s the last day consumers will be able to access their FICO credit scores on myFICO.com with Experian credit data included, The New York Times reports (more…)

Popularity: 8% [?]

Payments processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc. – which processes more than 100 million debit and credit transactions per month – is facing two class-action lawsuits seeking financial compensation for U.S. consumers whose credit or debit card information was stolen during a large-scale breach of the payment processor’s data system late last year. (more…)

Popularity: 4% [?]

If you’re one of the 5 million to 6 million homeowners who is behind on your mortgage and facing foreclosure, or you’re headed that way with little idea of what to do next, there are several things you can still do to try to avoid losing your home: (more…)

Popularity: 3% [?]

Wade County sheriff Warren Evans of Michigan is refusing to enforce lender foreclosure sales in his county and has unsuccessfully petitioned Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm to impose a six-month moratorium on foreclosure sales, the Associated Press reported (“Wayne Co. Sheriff to Stop Sale of Foreclosed Homes,” Feb. 3, 2009). (more…)

Popularity: 5% [?]

A recent report from the U.S. Commerce Department shows that recent changes in consumer spending and saving habits — a decline in household debt and a rise in household savings — may become the behavioral norm for American consumers. (more…)

Popularity: 4% [?]

Credit card holders have had some pretty big changes made to their accounts over the last few months, witnessing credit card issuers slash their credit limits, increase their interest rates, and even shut down their unused accounts as these companies aggressively try to minimize the risks posed by cash-strapped consumers.

But card holders have seen little effort by credit card companies to encourage consumer spending, until now. (more…)

Popularity: 8% [?]