Teens want to walk a clean financial path, but currently don’t seem to understand enough on the subject. The Federal Reserve’s 2008 test of high school seniors resulted in an average financial literacy score of just 48 percent. How can we best educate our youth to build a health credit history? Care about your credit [...]

That old hospital bill has come back. This time it is haunting you in a court of law. Not only is it perfectly legal for a creditor to sue you for debts owed, but courts are siding in their favor. That means more consumers are being hit with garnished wages and racked up interest and [...]

You thought harassing calls and threats from creditors for defaulting on your debts was hitting credit repair bottom. Creditors are taking it a step further as lawsuits are rising against consumers for not paying up on unsecured amounts owed, like credit card balances. When and how might a creditor come after you for past money [...]

Know how to make your credit worse? Hundreds of supposed helpful financial companies do. Consumers today are swapped with promises to erase debts or have their credit managed on a daily basis for a small fee. Instead of healing your credit, these moves often leave new marks. How do you avoid terrible credit repair advice? [...]

Your credit has already been hit with costly negative marks. Do you really need to pay for credit repair services just to revive your financial health? While investing some dough to build a high credit score is necessary, the majority of services offer little else than what you can do for yourself. Don’t be tricked [...]

Debt collecting agencies will go to great lengths to gather funds they feel a consumer owes. Understandably, when you default on an unsecured loan like a credit card and this past-due account has been bought and thus paid for by modern-day bounty hunters, it’s their business to stay in business by getting folks to pay [...]

A debt collector’s goal is to convince the consumer to pay as much as possible on a loan owed. It doesn’t matter to the collecting agency if they use harsh language, pose as a lawyer, bug your boss, or even cannot prove the debt is legally yours. This is why the federal government created the [...]

When you are drowning in debt, sometimes it seems easier to just allow the accounts to go into default with your financial fate flowing where it must. Attempts on your behalf must be made or the debt collector will take the helm in ways that it shouldn’t, perhaps costing you more money and distress in [...]

You might have heard your credit reports are free to obtain every year. You possible even know three consumer reporting agencies track how you manage your loans and bank accounts. One thing you do know is your credit future is based on financial information gathered about you. But how well do you understand these credit [...]